Suppressing the coffee-stain effect
The ‘coffee-stain’ effect is a well-known effect in physics and daily life: a dark-coloured edge remains when a fluid, containing particles, evaporates. This is caused by an ‘avalanche’ of particles moving to the outer edge, UT scientists showed in an earlier publication. In inkjet and 3D printing, this is an undesired effect. The effect can be suppressed by modifying the surface using an oily layer, researchers now show in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS).
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