Analysis of the oscillatory wetting–dewetting motion of a volatile drop during the deposition of polymer on a solid substrate

Abstract

A recent experimental work revealed an oscillatory wetting–dewetting motion of the three phase contact line during the deposition of polymer from a volatile solution. Here we employ a theoretical model to explain the wetting–dewetting motion of the contact line by incorporating opposing evaporation and Marangoni induced flows in the deposition process. We take into account the contribution of polymer concentration to the surface tension of the volatile drop and show that by changing the different parameters of the system we are able to traverse the dynamics of the three phase contact line from a simple dewetting regime to the wetting–dewetting regime, observed in experiment. We further show that deposition patterns, which were previously attributed to stick and stick-slip modes of the contact line motion may be generated by the wetting–dewetting mode. We summarize our theoretical findings in phase diagrams, which show the expected regimes of contact line motion and the resulting types of patterned deposits which are to be obtained under different physical conditions.