Pattern formation in drying drops

Abstract

Ring formation in an evaporating sessile drop is a hydrodynamic process in which solids dispersed in the drop are advected to the contact line. After all the liquid evaporates, a ring-shaped deposit is left on the substrate that contains almost all the solute. Here I show that the drop itself can generate one of the essential conditions for ring formation to occur: contact line pinning. Furthermore, I show that when self-induced pinning is the only source of pinning an array of patterns-that include cellular and lamellar structures, sawtooth patterns, and Sierpinski gaskets-arises from the competition between dewetting and contact line pinning.