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arXiv · 2006.10469

Drying Pathways of an Evaporating Soft Matter Droplet

Abstract

Micro-droplets of soft matter solutions have different morphologies upon drying, and can finally become wrinkled, buckled or cavitated particles. We investigate the morphology evolution of a drying soft matter droplet in this work: at the early stage of drying, wrinkling or cavitation instability can occur in the droplet, depending on the comparison between the critical wrinkling and cavitation pressure; at a later stage of drying, no wrinkle will appear if cavitation happens first, while there can still be cavitation if wrinkling happens first. A three-dimensional phase diagram in the space of elastic length, gel layer thickness and weight loss is provided for illustrating these drying pathways of a soft matter droplet, which can guide future fabrications of micro-particles with desired morphologies.

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Guangle Du, Fangfu Ye, Masao Doi, Fanlong Meng. 2020-06-18. Drying Pathways of an Evaporating Soft Matter Droplet. https://doi.org/10.1088/1572-9494%2Fac58ef

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