Loughborough University
Browse
1106.4467v1.pdf (7.05 MB)

Modelling the evaporation of thin films of colloidal suspensions using dynamical density functional theory

Download (7.05 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2014-10-07, 14:32 authored by Mark J. Robbins, Andrew ArcherAndrew Archer, Uwe Thiele
Recent experiments have shown that various structures may be formed during the evaporative dewetting of thin films of colloidal suspensions. Nanoparticle deposits of strongly branched 'flower-like', labyrinthine and network structures are observed. They are caused by the different transport processes and the rich phase behaviour of the system. We develop a model for the system, based on a dynamical density functional theory, which reproduces these structures. The model is employed to determine the influences of the solvent evaporation and of the diffusion of the colloidal particles and of the liquid over the surface. Finally, we investigate the conditions needed for 'liquid–particle' phase separation to occur and discuss its effect on the self-organized nanostructures.

Funding

This work was supported by the EU via the ITN MULTIFLOW (PITN-GA-2008-214919). MJR also gratefully acknowledges support from EPSRC and AJA thanks RCUK for support.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematical Sciences

Published in

JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-CONDENSED MATTER

Volume

23

Issue

41

Pages

? - ? (18)

Citation

ROBBINS, M.J., ARCHER, A.J. and THIELE, U., 2011. Modelling the evaporation of thin films of colloidal suspensions using dynamical density functional theory. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 23 (41), 415102.

Publisher

© IOP Publishing Ltd

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2011

Notes

This article was published in the serial, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter [© IOP Press]. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/23/41/415102

ISSN

0953-8984

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC