Crack Patterns in Drying Laponite-NaCl Suspension: Role of the Substrate and a Static Electric Field

We report the formation of crack patterns in drying films of Laponite-NaCl solution. Crack patterns that develop upon drying aqueous Laponite-NaCl solution change drastically as the amount of NaCl is varied in the solution. In this work, we have investigated the effect of NaCl on drying films of aqueous solution of Laponite under two conditions: (i) when the film is bounded by a wall, as in Petri dish experiments and (ii) when the film does not have any boundary, as in experiments with droplets. In order to obtain insights into the effect of the substrate, the experiments have been done with two different substrates of different hydrophobicities, polypropylene and glass. The formation of crack patterns has been explained on the basis of the wetting and spreading properties of the solution on these substrates and the effect of salt on colloidal aggregation. In this work, we have shown that the presence of salt in aqueous Laponite solution can induce crack patterns depending on the nature of the substrate. Another important aspect of this work is the role of NaCl in crack inhibition in desiccating films of aqueous Laponite, in the presence of static electric field. This effect can be utilized to suppress undesirable crack formation in many applications.