ABSTRACT
Contents List of Abbreviations and Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 A. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 B. Background, Materials and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
1. Drop in Equilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 2. Evaporating Drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 3. Deformable Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 4. Evaporation of Solvent Droplets on Polymer Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
C. Applications of Evaporating Solvent Drops on Deformable/Soluble Substrates . . . . . . . . . . 114 1. Microlenses on Polymer Surfaces by ink jetting]Ink Jetting Solvent Drops . . . . . . . . . . 114 2. Microstructures on Polymer Surfaces by mixtures of solvents]Mixtures of Solvents . . . . . 115 3. Microlithography and Other Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
D. Decoupling the Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 1. Mass Transport Inside the Drop: the Coffee Stain Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 2. Dissolution and Swelling of the Substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 3. Etching and Collapse of the Substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 4. Elastic Deformation of the Substrate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
E. Brief Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 F. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 G. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
A. Introduction The evaporation of drops has developed lately to an extremely active and prolific area of research, since it is relevant for a vast number of technological applications. Processes such as wetting, dewetting or drying occur in a many industrial processes, like coatings, crop spraying, printing, or biotechnological applications. Evaporation of microdrops is also of interest in the study and development of heat transfer devices for cooling microelectronic devices, or in combustion technologies. The use of droplets as microreactors in nanochemistry or as liquid media for DNA optical mapping as well demands a detailed knowledge of the evaporating mechanism of sessile drops. In fundamental research, the study of evaporation drops is used in order to understand the properties of interfaces between solids, liquids and gases.
