Effect of Substrate Temperature on Pattern Formation of Bidispersed Particles from Volatile Drops

In this study, pattern formation during evaporation of bidispersed drops (containing 1 and 3.2 μm particles) placed on a smooth substrate at different temperatures is investigated. Five distinctive deposition patterns are observed depending on the substrate temperature: a relatively uniform pattern enclosed by a disk-shaped ring, a nearly nonuniform pattern inside a thick outer ring, a "dual-ring" pattern, a "rose-like" pattern, and a set of concentric rings corresponding to the "stick-slip" pattern. At drops edge, the particle size effect leads to the formation of three rings: an outermost ring formed by the nonvolatile additives smaller than 1 μm, a middle ring built by particles with size of 1 μm, and an innermost ring formed by the mixture of 1 and 3.2 μm. For temperatures between 64 and 99 °C, the depinning of the contact line causes the same particle sorting at the other deposition lines in the interior of the drop. However, the width of the zone between the outermost ring and the middle ring at the initial edge of the drop is found to be smaller than that at the other deposition lines. The size of the width is found to be dependent on the contact angle. Particle velocity is measured by tracking particles during the evaporation. It is shown that particle velocity slightly increases with time, but it rapidly increases at the last stage of the drying process, known as "rush-hour" behavior. The sudden change in the increase of the velocity occurs between the normalized time of 0.7 and 0.8 for temperatures from 22 to 81 °C. The increasing trend of velocity with time matches well with the theoretical model. The tracer particles are also used to measure the distance between the contact line and the nearest turning point of those particles return back toward the top of the drop due to the inward Marangoni flow. It is found that this distance decreases with increasing the substrate temperature.