Premium
Manipulating the Coffee‐Ring Effect: Interactions at Work
Author(s) -
Anyfantakis Manos,
Baigl Damien
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.201500410
Subject(s) - coffee ring effect , drop (telecommunication) , colloidal particle , nanotechnology , colloid , suspension (topology) , particle (ecology) , materials science , chemical physics , chemistry , mechanical engineering , engineering , mathematics , oceanography , homotopy , geology , pure mathematics
The evaporation of a drop of colloidal suspension pinned on a substrate usually results in a ring of particles accumulated at the periphery of the initial drop. Intense research has been devoted to understanding, suppressing and ultimately controlling this so‐called coffee‐ring effect (CRE). Although the crucial role of flow patterns in the CRE has been thoroughly investigated, the effect of interactions on this phenomenon has been largely neglected. This Concept paper reviews recent works in this field and shows that the interactions of colloids with (and at) liquid–solid and liquid–gas interfaces as well as bulk particle–particle interactions drastically affect the morphology of the deposit. General rules are established to control the CRE by tuning these interactions, and guidelines for the rational physicochemical formulation of colloidal suspensions capable of depositing particles in desirable patterns are provided. This opens perspectives for the reliable control of the CRE in real‐world formulations and creates new paradigms for flexible particle patterning at all kinds of interfaces as well for the exploitation of the CRE as a robust and inexpensive diagnostic tool.