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Dynamical density functional theory for the dewetting of evaporating thin films of nanoparticle suspensions exhibiting pattern formation

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posted on 2014-10-03, 12:43 authored by Andrew ArcherAndrew Archer, Mark J. Robbins, Uwe Thiele
Recent experiments have shown that the striking structure formation in dewetting films of evaporating colloidal nanoparticle suspensions occurs in an ultrathin “postcursor” layer that is left behind by a mesoscopic dewetting front. Various phase change and transport processes occur in the postcursor layer that may lead to nanoparticle deposits in the form of labyrinthine, network, or strongly branched “finger” structures. We develop a versatile dynamical density functional theory to model this system which captures all these structures and may be employed to investigate the influence of evaporation or condensation, nanoparticle transport, and solute transport in a differentiated way. We highlight, in particular, the influence of the subtle interplay of decomposition in the layer and contact line motion on the observed particle-induced transverse instability of the dewetting front.

Funding

A.J.A. and M.J.R. gratefully acknowledge financial support by RCUK and EPSRC-GB, respectively. We acknowledge support by the EU via Grant No. PITN-GA-2008-214919 (MULTIFLOW).

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematical Sciences

Published in

PHYSICAL REVIEW E

Volume

81

Issue

2

Pages

? - ? (5)

Citation

ARCHER, A.J., ROBBINS, M.J. and THIELE, U., 2010. Dynamical density functional theory for the dewetting of evaporating thin films of nanoparticle suspensions exhibiting pattern formation. Physical Review E, 81 (2), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.81.021602

Publisher

© The American Physical Society

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

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

2010

Notes

This article was published in the journal, Physical Review E [© The American Physical Society] and the definitive version is also available at: http://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.81.021602

ISSN

1539-3755

Language

  • en

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