Pattern formation from drying droplets containing sedimenting particles and dewetting of thin films of such suspensions was studied. The dewetting causes the formation of finger-like patterns near the contact line which leave behind a deposit of branches. We find that the strikingly low speed of dewetting is due to the high particle concentration in the contact line region, leading to a strongly enhanced viscosity. For pattern formation from drying droplets (containing particles), evaporation also causes dewetting. In both cases, we find a similar relationship between the size of the patterns and the dewetting speed. The coefficient of this relationship gives us the effective viscosity at the contact line. We present a simple model that accounts for this, and that shows that the size of the particles is the relevant length scale in both problems.
Soft Matter
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