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Altering the coffee-ring effect by adding a surfactant-like viscous polymer solution.

ABSTRACT: A uniform deposition of the suspended particles in an evaporating droplet is necessary in many research fields. Such deposition is difficult to achieve, because the coffee-ring effect dominates the internal flow in a droplet. The present study adopts a biocompatible, surfactant-like polymer (Polyethylene glycol, PEG) to break the coffee-ring effect and obtain a relatively uniform deposition of the microparticles with yielding multi-ring pattern over a droplet area. Movements of the suspended particles in evaporating droplets and deposition patterns of them on a glass substrate were analyzed with microscopic images and video files. The PEG in the droplets successfully altered the coffee-ring effect because of the surface tension variation, which induced a centripetal Marangoni flow. Balancing these two phenomena apparently generated the Marangoni vortex. For PEG solution droplets, the pinning-depinning process during evaporation was periodically repeated and multiple rings were regularly formed. In conclusion, adding a surfactant-like viscous polymer in a droplet could provide a uniform coating of suspended particles, such as cells and various biomaterials, which would be essentially required for droplet assays of biomedical applications.

SUBMITTER: Seo C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5428518 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Altering the coffee-ring effect by adding a surfactant-like viscous polymer solution.

Seo Changdeok C Jang Daeho D Chae Jongjin J Shin Sehyun S

Scientific reports 20170329 1

A uniform deposition of the suspended particles in an evaporating droplet is necessary in many research fields. Such deposition is difficult to achieve, because the coffee-ring effect dominates the internal flow in a droplet. The present study adopts a biocompatible, surfactant-like polymer (Polyethylene glycol, PEG) to break the coffee-ring effect and obtain a relatively uniform deposition of the microparticles with yielding multi-ring pattern over a droplet area. Movements of the suspended par ...[more]

PMID: 28356553

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Project description:Motivated by the possibility of enhancing aerosol drug delivery to mucus-obstructed lungs, the spreading of a drop of aqueous surfactant solution on a physically entangled aqueous poly(acrylamide) solution subphase that mimics lung airway surface liquid was investigated. Sodium dodecyl sulfate was used as the surfactant. To visualize spreading of the drop and mimic the inclusion of a drug substance, fluorescein, a hydrophilic and non-surface-active dye, was added to the surfactant solution. The spreading progresses through a series of events. Marangoni stresses initiate the convective spreading of the drop. Simultaneously, surfactant escapes across the drop's contact line within a second of deposition and causes a change in subphase surface tension outside the drop on the order of 1 mN/m. Convective spreading of the drop ends within 2-3 s of drop deposition, when a new interfacial tension balance is achieved. Surfactant escape depletes the drop of surfactant, and the residual drop takes the form of a static lens of nonzero contact angle. On longer time scales, the surfactant dissolves into the subphase. The lens formed by the water in the deposited drop persists for as long as 3 min after the convective spreading process ends due to the long diffusional time scales associated with the underlying entangled polymer solution. The persistence of the lens suggests that the drop phase behaves as if it were immiscible with the subphase during this time period. Whereas surfactant escapes the spreading drop and advances on the subphase/vapor interface, hydrophilic dye molecules in the drop do not escape but remain with the drop throughout the convective spreading. The quasi-immiscible nature of the spreading event suggests that the chemical properties of the surfactant and subphase are much less important than their physical properties, consistent with prior qualitative studies of spreading of different types of surfactants on entangled polymer subphases: the selection of surfactant for pulmonary delivery applications may be limited only by physical and toxicological considerations. Further, the escape of surfactant from individual drops may provide an additional spreading mechanism in the lung, as hydrodynamic and/or surface pressure repulsions may drive individual droplets apart after deposition.

Dataset Information

Altering the coffee-ring effect by adding a surfactant-like viscous polymer solution.

Publications

Altering the coffee-ring effect by adding a surfactant-like viscous polymer solution.

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