title: A Stray Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of the Drying of Sodium Silicate Films.
abstract: Stray field magnetic resonance imaging (STRAFI) is shown to be highly suited to the study of drying processes in thin films. Sodium silicate films have been chosen as a model system exhibiting many of the properties of film drying in general. Films have been dried, as a function of temperature in the range 22 to 62 degrees C, down to water contents of order 28% by weight, at which stage the film is glassy. The experimental results have been quantitatively analyzed by treating the drying film as a colloidal solution. The results suggest that the localized hydrogen spin-spin relaxation time, and hence the mobility of the water in the films is independent of the drying regime and depends primarily on the local water concentration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH, United Kingdom
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Hughes
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Rockliffe
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wills