Abstract
The growth of fingering patterns in dewetting nanofluids (colloidal solutions of thiol-passivated gold nanoparticles) has been followed in real time using contrast-enhanced video microscopy. The fingering instability on which we focus here arises from evaporatively driven nucleation and growth in a nanoscopically thin precursor solvent film behind the macroscopic contact line. We find that well-developed isotropic fingering structures only form for a narrow range of experimental parameters. Numerical simulations, based on a modification of the Monte Carlo approach introduced by Rabani et al. [Nature (London) 426, 271 (2003)], reproduce the patterns we observe experimentally.
- Received 18 January 2008
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.176102
©2008 American Physical Society