Evaporative Deposition of Surfactant-Laden Nanofluid Droplets over a Silicon Surface.

Morphologies of evaporative deposition, which has been widely applied in potential fields, were induced by the competition between internal flows inside evaporating droplets. Controlling the pattern of deposition and suppressing the coffee-ring effect are essential issues of intense interest in the aspects of industrial technologies and scientific applications. Here, evaporative deposition of surfactant-laden nanofluid droplets over silicon was experimentally investigated. A ring-like deposition was formed after complete evaporation of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-laden nanofluid droplets with an initial SDS concentration ranging from 0 to 1.5 CMC. In the case of initial SDS concentrations above 1.3 CMC, no cracks were observed in the ring-like deposition, indicating that the deposition patterns of nanofluid droplets could be completely changed and cracks could be eliminated by sufficient addition of SDS. With the increase of the initial concentration of hexadecyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), the width of the deposition ring gradually decreased until no ring-like structure was formed. On the contrary, with the increase of the initial Triton X-100 (TX-100) concentration, the width of the deposition ring gradually increased until a uniform deposition was generated. Moreover, when the initial TX-100 concentration was high, a "tree-ring-like" pattern was discovered. Besides, morphologies of evaporative pattern due to the addition of surfacants were qualitatively analyzed.

Evaluation of interfacial misfit strain field of heterostructures using STEM nano secondary moiré method.

STEM nano-moiré can achieve high-precision deformation measurement in a large field of view. In scanning moiré fringe technology, the scanning line and magnification of the existing transmission electron microscope (TEM) cannot be changed continuously. The frequency of the crystal lattice is often difficult to match with the fixed frequency of the scanning line, resulting in mostly too dense fringes that cannot be directly observed; thus, the calculation error is relatively large. This problem exists in both the STEM moiré method and the multiplication moiré method. Herein, we propose the STEM secondary nano-moiré method, i.e., a digital grating of similar frequency is superimposed on or sampling the primary moiré fringe or multiplication moiré to form the secondary moiré. The formation principle of the secondary moiré is analyzed in detail, with deduced theoretical relations for measuring the strain of STEM secondary nano-moiré fringe. The advantages of sampling secondary moiré and digital secondary moiré are compared. The optimal sampling interpolation function is obtained through error analysis. This method expands the application range of the STEM moiré method and has better practicability. Finally, the STEM secondary nano-moiré is used to accurately measure the strain field at the Si/Ge heterostructure interface, and the theoretical strain field calculated by the dislocation model is analyzed and compared. The obtained results are more compatible with the P-N dislocation model. Our work provides a practical method for the accurate evaluation of the interface characteristics of heterostructures, which is an important basis for judging the photoelectric performance of the entire device and the optimal design of the heterostructures.

Probing Micro-Newton Forces on Solid/Liquid/Gas Interfaces Using Transmission Phase Shift.

Many of the nature and life systems are driven by capillary interactions on solid/liquid/gas interfaces. Here, we present a profilometry technique called transmission phase shift for visualizing the liquid/gas interfaces in three dimensions with high resolution. Using this approach, we probe the change in tiny forces with particle radius at a solid/liquid/gas interface. We provide the first direct evidence that in the issues of floating versus sinking at small-scale, Archimedes' principle should be generalized to include the crucial role of surface tension and reveal the dominant regimes of floating particles based on the Bond number. Remarkably, the measured forces are in the range of micro-Newtons, suggesting that this terse methodology may guide the future design of a liquid microbalance and will be a universal tool for investigating capillarity and interface issues.

Transmission-lattice based geometric phase analysis for evaluating the dynamic deformation of a liquid surface.

Quantitatively measuring a dynamic liquid surface often presents a challenge due to high transparency, fluidity and specular reflection. Here, a novel Transmission-Lattice based Geometric Phase Analysis (TLGPA) method is introduced. In this method, a special lattice is placed underneath a liquid to be tested and, when viewed from above, the phase of the transmission-lattice image is modulated by the deformation of the liquid surface. Combining this with multi-directional Newton iteration algorithms, the dynamic deformation field of the liquid surface can be calculated from the phase variation of a series of transmission-lattice images captured at different moments. The developed method has the advantage of strong self-adaption ability to initial lattice rotational errors and this is discussed in detail. Dynamic 3D ripples formation and propagation was investigated and the results obtained demonstrated the feasibility of the method.

Electro-capillary peeling of thin films.

Thin films are widely-used functional materials that have attracted much interest in academic and industrial applications. With thin films becoming micro/nanoscale, developing a simple and nondestructive peeling method for transferring and reusing the films remains a major challenge. Here, we develop an electro-capillary peeling strategy that achieves thin film detachment by driving liquid to percolate and spread into the bonding layer under electric fields, immensely reducing the deformation and strain of the film compared with traditional methods (reaching 86%). Our approach is evaluated via various applied voltages and films, showing active control characterizations and being appropriate for a broad range of films. Theoretically, electro-capillary peeling is achieved by utilizing the Maxwell stress to compete with the film's adhesion stress and tension stress. This work shows the great potential of the electro-capillary peeling method to provide a simple way to transfer films and facilitates valid avenues for reusing soft materials.

Active control of electro-visco-fingering in Hele-Shaw cells using Maxwell stress.

Viscous fingering is an extensively observed phenomenon in porous media or Hele-Shaw cells. In general, this instability is particularly difficult to control for given fluids and geometries. Therefore, investigating a control method of viscous fingering is quite attractive. Here, we present that electro-visco-fingering (EVF) in fluids with different relative permittivity shows a controllable performance under electric fields. The theoretical model is established from the perspective of force analysis to indicate that active control of EVF is achieved by the competition between the Maxwell stress jump and hydrostatic pressure gradient. In addition, an Electric Control number (EC) is adopted to characterize the electric effect on EVF and experimentally confirmed for broad ranges of flow rates and voltages. Unlike the electro-osmotic flow, this method shows a considerable achievement in energy efficiency. Our work provides a new way to actively control viscous fingering and opens new routes for applications of interfacial instabilities.

The Constructions and Pyrolysis of 3D Kerogen Macromolecular Models: Experiments and Simulations.

Kerogens are extracted from deep shales to study pyrolysis of deep shale samples. The 2D molecular models of kerogens are obtained by a series of physical and chemical experiments by which the macromolecular models of kerogens are constructed. Then, the reasonable 3D macromolecular models are established by molecular mechanics and global energy minimization. The effects of temperature and heating rate on the chemical kinetics of kerogen pyrolysis are studied using reactive force field (ReaxFF). The hybrid molecular dynamics/force-biased Monte Carlo (MD/fbMC) approach is used to simulate the pyrolytic process at the experimental temperature, which is lower than the conventional one. The gaseous products and residues obtained by the simulations agree with the experimental results, which means a reliable simulation method for pyrolysis at experimental temperature is provided. This study constructs the rational macromolecular models of kerogen by experiments, and proposes the mechanisms of typical reactions of kerogen pyrolysis, which may help in understanding the formation of shale oil and gas.

Author Correction: Evaporative deposition of polystyrene microparticles on PDMS surface.

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Evaporative deposition of polystyrene microparticles on PDMS surface.

Evaporation of water and ethanol/water droplets containing large polystyrene (PS) microparticles on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface was experimentally investigated. It is found that no matter with or without small addition of ethanol, a compact monolayer deposition is formed for lower microparticle concentration while mountain-like deposition for higher concentration. Since the more volatile compound (ethanol) evaporates more quickly than the less volatile compound (water), evaporation of ethanol/water mixture droplet exhibits different characteristics from pure water. When the concentration of microparticle is low, the contact radius of ethanol/water mixture droplet decreases throughout the whole process, while the contact angle increases at first to a maximum, then keeps almost constant, and finally decreases sharply. However, the evaporation of ethanol/water mixture droplet with higher concentration of microparticle behaviors more complex. The settling time of microparticles was estimated and its theoretical value agrees well with the experimental one. Moreover, a mechanism of self-pinning of microparticles was used to elucidate the deposition behavior of microparticles, indicating that as the contact line is depinning, the liquid film covering the outmost microparticle becomes thicker and thicker, and the microparticles have to move spontaneously with the depinning contact line under the action of capillary force.