Beyond Coffee Rings: Drying Drops of Colloidal Dispersions on Inclined Substrates

The patterns resulting from drying particle-laden sessile drops (for example, coffee rings, where the particles are concentrated more at the edge, and their complete suppression, where the particles are uniformly distributed throughout the pattern) have been well studied for more than two decades. For the ubiquitous instance of occurrence of drying of drops containing nonvolatile species (either dissolved or dispersed) on substrates oriented at different angles with respect to gravity, the investigation of resulting evaporative patterns has not received much attention. This mini-review addresses the need to investigate the drying of drops residing on inclined surfaces and highlights recent advances in this field.