Fingering instabilities in dewetting nanofluids.
The growth of fingering patterns in dewetting nanofluids (colloidal solutions of thiol-passivated gold nanoparticles) has been followed in real time using contrast-enhanced video microscopy. The fingering instability on which we focus here arises from evaporatively driven nucleation and growth in a nanoscopically thin precursor solvent film behind the macroscopic contact line. We find that well-developed isotropic fingering structures only form for a narrow range of experimental parameters. Numerical simulations, based on a modification of the Monte Carlo approach introduced by Rabani et al. [Nature (London) 426, 271 (2003)10.1038/nature02087], reproduce the patterns we observe experimentally.
Pauliac-Vaujour
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The School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdom.
Stannard
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Martin
C P
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Blunt
M O
MO
Notingher
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Moriarty
P J
PJ
Vancea
I
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Thiele
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U