Elimination of the Coffee-Ring Effect by Promoting Particle Adsorption and Long-Range Interaction

Abstract

A Monte Carlo model has been developed to investigate the transition from the coffee-ring deposition to the uniform coverage in drying pinned sessile colloidal droplets. The model applies the diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) approach coupled with the biased random walk (BRW) to simulate the particle migration and agglomeration during the droplet drying process. It is shown that the simultaneous presence of the particle adsorption, long-range attraction, and circulatory motion processes is important for the transition from the coffee-ring effect to the uniform deposition of finally dried particles. The absence of one of the specified factors favors the coffee-ring deposition near the droplet boundary. The strong outward capillary flow on the latest evaporation stage can easily destroy the entire particle pre-ordering at the early drying stages. The formation of a robust particle structure is required to resist the outward flow and alter the coffee-ring effect