Drying of a Colloidal Suspension Deposited on a Substrate: Experimental and Numerical Studies

We studied a colloidal suspension of polystyrene beads deposited on a glass substrate. The glass substrate contained either straight rough areas on the borders of an open channel or only straight rough areas. The drying of the suspension was observed with an optical microscope, the light bulb of which acted as an energy source to evaporate the suspension. Moreover, the light bulb of the microscope provided optical pressure due to light. We observed that the colloidal particles were trapped on the rough areas of the substrate and not in the open channel at the end of the drying process. In order to understand the experimental results, we modeled numerically the drying of the suspension using a Molecular Dynamics program. The forces imposed on the substrate by the particles are their weight, the optical pressure due to the light bulb of the optical microscope, the attractive Van der Waals force and the repulsive diffuse layer force. The forces acting between two particles are the attractive Van der Waals forces, the repulsive diffuse layer force and the capillary force. The Gaussian random force (linked to Brownian motion) and the particle liquid viscous drag force (also linked to Brownian motion) are horizontal and applied on one particle. The relation between the normal forces N (forces acting by the particles on the substrate) and the horizontal forces F is Amontons’ third law of friction F≤μkN; in rough areas of the substrate, μk is larger than in smooth areas. This explains that particles are trapped in the areas with high roughness.