Mam Pal Lil 2018

Delft University of Technology
A review on suppression and utilization of the coffee-ring effect
Mampallil, Dileep; Eral, Huseyin Burak
DOI
10.1016/j.cis.2017.12.008
Publication date
2018
Document Version
Final published version
Published in
Advances in Colloid and Interface Science
Citation (APA)
Mampallil, D., & Eral, H. B. (2018). A review on suppression and utilization of the coffee-ring effect.
Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 252, 38-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2017.12.008
Important note
To cite this publication, please use the final published version (if applicable).
Please check the document version above.
Copyright
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent
of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Takedown policy
Please contact us and provide details if you believe this document breaches copyrights.
We will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
This work is downloaded from Delft University of Technology.

For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to a maximum of 10.
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository
'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project
https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher

is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the
Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Advances in Colloid and Interface Science 252 (2018) 38–54
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Advances in Colloid and Interface Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cis
Historical perspective
A review on suppression and utilization of the coffee-ring effect

Dileep Mampallil a, * , Huseyin Burak Eral b, *
a
Indian Institute of Science Education & Research Tirupati, Mangalam P. O., Tirupati-517507, India
b
Process & Energy Department, 3ME Faculty, TU Delft, Leeghwaterstraat 39, 2628CB Delft, The Netherlands
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Available online 2 January 2018 Evaporation of sessile droplets containing non-volatile solutes dispersed in a volatile solvent leaves behind
ring-like solid stains. As the volatile species evaporates, pinning of the contact line gives rise to capillary
Keywords:
flows that transport non-volatile solutes to the contact line. This phenomenon, called the coffee-ring effect,
Coffee-ring effect compromises the overall performance of industrially relevant manufacturing processes involving evapora-
Evaporation tion such as printing, biochemical analysis, manufacturing of nano-structured materials through colloidal
Droplets and macromolecular patterning. Various approaches have been developed to suppress this phenomenon,
Capillarity which is otherwise difficult to avoid. The coffee-ring effect has also been leveraged to prepare new materials
Colloids through convection induced assembly. This review underlines not only the strategies developed to suppress
the coffee-ring effect but also sheds light on approaches to arrive at novel processes and materials. Working
principles and applicability of these strategies are discussed together with a critical comparison.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
1.1. Outline of this review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2. Suppression of CRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.1. Preventing the contact line pinning using hydrophobic surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.2. Electrowetting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3. Electroosmotic flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.4. Vibrations and acoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.5. Marangoni flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.6. Interactions at solid-liquid and liquid-gas interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.7. Transition of liquid property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.8. Humidity cycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.9. Porous substrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.10. Other methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.11. Advantages and limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3. Utilization of CRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.1. Biochemical applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.2. Industrial applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
* Corresponding authors at: Van’t Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D. Mampallil), [email protected] (H.B. Eral).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2017.12.008
0001-8686/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
D. Mampallil, H.B. Eral / Advances in Colloid and Interface Science 252 (2018) 38–54 39
1. Introduction strategies to suppress CRE and (ii) the approaches leveraging CRE
to arrive at novel processes and materials. Within each section we
A phenomenon omnipresent in nature, the evaporation of ses- classify the methods based on their working principle.
sile droplets containing non-volatile solutes received a great deal of
attention due to the richness of fundamental phenomenon it entails 2. Suppression of CRE
and the number of applied aspects connected to it [1–3].
One ubiquitous phenomenon occurring in the evaporation of ses- CRE can be suppressed through one of the three physical strate-
sile droplets containing non-volatile solutes is the contact line pin- gies (i) preventing the pinning of the contact line; (ii) disturbing the
ning and the formation of ring-like residues, called the coffee-stains capillary flow towards the contact line and (iii) preventing the parti-
or coffee-rings [1–5]. Understanding and controlling the process of cles being transported to the droplet edge by the capillary flows. We
solute deposition in the presence of coffee-ring effect (CRE) is impor- will first briefly introduce these three strategies then discuss them in
tant in manufacturing processes involving evaporation on surfaces detail in different sections.
including printing [6–9] and fabrication of ordered structures [24], The contact line pinning of a sessile droplet is characterized by
functional nanomaterials [25,26] and colloidal crystals [27,28]. CRE the CAH [57–59]. The pinning force per unit length and the contact
also hampers the performance of commercial applications including angle hysteresis are related as fp = c (cosha −cos hr ) where c is the
fluorescent microarrays [10,11], matrix assisted laser desorption ion- surface tension and ha and hr are the advancing and receding contact
ization (MALDI) spectrometry [12–15], and surface enhanced Raman angles, respectively. Minimizing the hysteresis will facilitate smooth
spectroscopy (SERS) [16,17]. CRE has also implications in plasmon- receding of the contact line upon evaporation hence preventing the
ics [18], diagnostics [19–21], solute separation [22] and electronics formation of ring-like deposits as also suggested by the theoretical
applications [23]. models [45,46,53]. Experimentally, it can be achieved by evaporat-
The solute deposition at the contact line is a complex pro- ing droplets on low CAH superhydrophobic surfaces [64-68,70] or
cess [1,2,4,29-31]. Contact line pinning and contact angle hysteresis through CAH suppression via electrowetting [77].
(CAH) play a critical role in formation of coffee-ring effect [59]. The When the evaporation-driven outward capillary flow is disturbed
evaporation rate and hence the capillary flow diverges at the contact the solute transport to the contact line can be minimized or even
line due to the relatively larger proportion of the liquid-air inter- totally avoided. This can be achieved by inducing additional flow
face there [5,30]. For evaporating droplets of colloidal suspension, fields inside the droplet, for example, by surface tension gradients
the particle deposition at the contact line can be ordered (square (Marangoni flows) [5,12], electrowetting [13,77], electroosmosis [80]
and hexagonal packings) or disordered depending on the magnitude and acoustic streaming [84].
of capillary flow [32]. Marin et al. observed that the capillary flow The transport of solute particles to the contact line can be pre-
diverges towards the end of the evaporation process and hence a vented by utilizing the particle-particle interactions and/or the inter-
transition from ordered to disordered packing is observed [32]. The action of particles with the solid-liquid (SL) interface and liquid-gas
solute deposition process is also influenced by a number of other (LG) interface [60,118]. In this strategy, solute particles can aggre-
aspects such as the presence of electric double layer at the liquid- gate at the SL interface or form arrested structures at the LG interface
substrate interface [33], the thermal Marangoni flows [34], the ratio altering the capillary flows. Other methods to prevent the transport
of the thermal conductivities of the substrate and liquid [35], sur- of particles are acoustics and phase transition of the liquid during
face charge of the substrate and particle surfaces [36], and even the evaporation [8,9].
shape of the particles [37,38]. Deposition of large particles are also
influenced by the inward capillary push due to the decreasing height 2.1. Preventing the contact line pinning using hydrophobic surfaces
of the liquid wedge near the contact line [39]. Similar forces due to
geometrical constraints in a different configuration formed unique Increasing the hydrophobicity of surfaces is often accompanied
packings of colloidal particles at the interface of liquid emulsion by decreasing CAH [59]. Lower CAH in essence means reduced
droplets in the presence of slow evaporation [40,41]. contact line pinning which leads to suppression of CRE. It can
Several theoretical models were developed to predict the mor- be achieved by patterning of controllable surface wettability as
phology of the deposit, the resulting film thickness and the solvent reviewed previously by Tial et al. [62]. These methods include chem-
flux. The first reported models by Parisse et al. could estimate the ical modification [61,62] and physical modification [62-68,70].
film thickness upon complete evaporation [29,30]. Later, the works The hydrophobization by chemical modification involves cover-
of Deegan et al. [4,31] and others [1,2,5,42-44] gave more complete ing the surface with hydrophobic molecules such as self-assembled
mechanistic understanding of CRE. Theoretical models incorporat- monolayers [61,62]. The physical modification involves patterning
ing the factors such as the receding of the contact line [45,46], the surface to create microscopic roughness on it, for example,
center-enhanced flux [47], presence of polymers [48–51] and an array of pillars, which in turn decreases the effective contact
surfactants [52] have shown to alter the morphology of the residues. area of the solid-liquid interface. When hydrophobized, such rough
Frastia et al. included the stick-slip motion of the receding con- surfaces act as superhydrophobic surfaces. Two different types of
tact line and observed the formation of multi-ring deposition of droplet configurations are possible on such surfaces: Cassie or Wen-
the solutes [53,54]. The multiphase model of Kaplan et al. showed zel states (Fig. 1a). In the Cassie state, a droplet sits on the pillars
that relative strength of the capillary flow and the evaporative flux and its evaporation can produce ball-like spherical [67] or disc-
influences the deposition pattern [55] as also demonstrated by Shen like [68] deposit (Fig. 1b, c). In the Wenzel state, the liquid fills in
et al. [56]. between the pillars. Cassie to Wenzel transition of the droplet was
studied previously [68,69]. It depends upon the balance between
the Laplace pressure PL = 2c/R and the capillary pressure Pc =
1.1. Outline of this review −4ccoshY [0/(w(1 − 0))], where R is the radius of the droplet, hY is
the equilibrium contact angle, 0 is the surface solid fraction and w
The physical insights obtained through theoretical and experi- is the pillar width. The capillary pressure decreases with increas-
mental investigations of CRE have not only been utilized to develop ing pillar pitch. As the droplet evaporates, the Laplace pressure
CRE-free manufacturing processes but also they inspired novel increases due to the decreasing droplet radius. Cassie to Wenzel tran-
strategies exploiting CRE as a method for convective assembly. sition occurs when the droplet becomes small enough such that the
We review this multi-faceted phenomenon in two sections: (i) the Laplace pressure exceeds the capillary pressure. It means that there
40 D. Mampallil, H.B. Eral / Advances in Colloid and Interface Science 252 (2018) 38–54
Fig. 1. The CRE on superhydrophobic surfaces. (a) A droplet can stay on top of the micropillars (Cassie state) or fill in between the pillars (Wenzel state). (b) Evaporation of a
colloidal droplet on superhydrophobic surface produced a spherical particle conglomerate. Adapted with permission from: [67] Copyright ©2012, National Academy of Sciences,
USA. (c) SEM images of representative particulate deposits on the five different surfaces show the influence of surface morphology on deposit pattern. Surfaces (i) and (ii) show
Cassie deposits whereas (iii) to (v) show Wenzel deposits. Adapted with permission from: [68] Copyright ©2014, American Physical Society. (d) Drying in the Wenzel configuration
also can result uniform deposition. Adapted with permission from: [70] Copyright ©2012, Royal Society of Chemistry.
exists a critical pitch above which Wenzel deposits are formed [68]. In the presence of solute particles in the droplet, electrowetting
Wenzel state is often associated with pinning. However, when nan- (EW) can ensure efficient slippage of the contact line on (partially)-
otextures are applied on superhydrophobic surfaces, droplets in the hydrophobic surfaces [75,76]. In EW configuration, a droplet is
Wenzel state can also have slipping contact lines [71]. Gelation deposited on a dielectric layer of thickness d and dielectric constant
of the particles at the edge of a Wenzel droplet can result in an 4d covering an electrode (Fig. 2). When a voltage U is applied between
inward circulatory flow of liquid suppressing CRE [70] (Fig. 1d). It the droplet and the electrode an electric force per unit length fel =
is also demonstrated that on surfaces with small CAH the solutes 4d 40 U2 /2d (40 : vacuum permittivity) pulls the contact line outward,
with low surface activity (say copper sulfate) formed spot-like overcoming the pinning forces. In AC (alternate current) electrowet-
residues [74]. ting (ACEW), the contact line moves periodically, thereby de-pinning
The suppression of CRE using (super)-hydrophobic surfaces is it continuously from the pinning sites. It allows the contact line to
simple as they do not require any external involvement during the recede freely as the droplet evaporates [76]. Additionally, ACEW gen-
drying of droplets. However, the preparation of superhydrophobic erates circulating flow inside the droplet, which mixes the solutes
surfaces is expensive. Another issue is the strong pinning of the con- continuously. Flow is generated at higher frequencies of the applied
tact line when surface active/adsorbing molecules are present in the voltage, typically a few kHz. The slipping contact line and the inter-
droplet as in the case with biological fluids such as blood and urine. nal flow produce concentrated spot-like residues [13,14,77] (Fig. 2).
Biological sample have variety of molecules that adsorb readily on Such concentrated residue of analytes increased the signal strength
the surfaces through hydrophobic or non-specific interactions. Thus, in MALDI spectrometry [13,14].
suppression of CRE in biological fluids using of hydrophobic surfaces Theoretical studies have demonstrated that drying a droplet in an
is still an open challenge. In such scenarios, strong convective flows electric field in other configurations also suppresses CRE [78,79]. For
can be introduced in the droplet to minimize the adsorption induced example, the application of a Gaussian potential near the edge of a
CAH as a potential solution. droplet deforms its interface due to the Maxwell stress. The deforma-
tion is in such a way that it drives the bulk of the droplet towards its
2.2. Electrowetting center eventually resulting in the suppression of CRE [78]. Zhang et
al. studied the effect of electric field on evaporating nanodroplets of
On hydrophobic and partially hydrophobic surfaces, pinning can salt-water using molecular dynamics simulation [79]. They applied
occur when the CAH or solute concentration is high. If CAH is high, DC (direct current) electric fields along uni-axis, and AC electric
during when the contact angle decreases to the receding angle, typi- fields axisymmetric, both parallel to the substrate. The application of
cally a few seconds depending upon the rate of evaporation, solutes electric fields parallel to the substrate is equivalent to the EW config-
can accumulate at the contact line. Such accumulation produces ring- uration with interdigitated electrodes [77]. With DC fields above 0.03
like deposits only if the duration of pinning is above a critical value V/Å, the salt crystals formed a ribbon-like pattern along the direction
for a given substrate-solute system [72]. On the other hand, short of the field. Low frequency AC electric fields stronger than approx-
pinning time even with high initial solute concentration can mini- imately 0.006 V/Å gave spot-like residues. At higher frequencies i.e.
mize CRE producing smaller inner rings [73]. The pinning induced typically a few tens of GHz, ring-like patterns reappeared because the
by deposition becomes more prominent when the solute is nanopar- time scale of the periodically varying electrophoretic force became
ticles as they can flow into the microscopic regions of the droplet comparable to the local equilibration time scale, thus nullifying the
edge. effect of the electric field.
Molecular adsorption on hydrophobic surfaces can decrease the Recently, surface acoustic waves (SAW) [83] were used for alter-
efficiency ACEW induced CRE suppression. The gradual accumulation ing the evaporative patterns [84–86]. Mampallil et al. demonstrated
of adsorbing molecules at the contact line prevents its oscillations. that CRE can be suppressed when the droplet is dried on a surface
However, the internal flow inside the droplet minimizes adsorption. where SAW propagates (see Fig. 4a). The SAW creates standing pres-
The working principle in ACEW is purely hydrodynamic implying sure waves in the droplet. The acoustic force pushes the particles
that the suppression is achieved by the contact line oscillations and towards the nodes of the standing waves. This force (say, along x
the internal flow [13,14,77]. No electric field exist inside the droplet direction) is given as Fac = 4pa3 kEac Vsin(2kx), where a is the diam-
if the liquid is conducting. It should be noted that EW under DC fields eter of the particle, k is the wave number, Eac is the time-averaged
cannot generate contact line oscillations. The inconvenience with the acoustic energy density, and V is the acoustic contrast factor that
configuration having a wire inserted into the droplet can be avoided depends on the density and compressibility of the particle and the
by using EW substrates with interdigitated electrodes [77]. In short, liquid. When the acoustic force is higher than the drag force due to
EW offers a feasible solution to suppress CRE even in the presence the capillary flow, the particles are trapped in the pressure nodes
of high concentrations of solutes in the droplet when the substrate in the bulk of the droplet (Fig. 4b). Trapping of particles in pres-
surface is (partially)-hydrophobic. sure nodes prevents the transport of the particles to the contact line
(Fig. 4c, d). Mhatre et al. studied the particle deposition on SAW prop-
agating surfaces both theoretically and experimentally [85]. They
2.3. Electroosmotic flow
derived governing conditions for the formation of stripes to films and
verified the conditions experimentally.
The capillary flow acting on the electric double layer at the solid-
The method based on acoustics has the advantage that it is inde-
liquid interface generates streaming potentials and influences the
pendent of the particle shape, density, nature of the liquid and the
solute transport [33]. The existence of the electric double layer can
wettability of the surface. The method is also suitable with biolog-
be exploited to generate electroosmotic flow (EOF) by externally
ical samples [84]. The substrate placed on the acoustic transducer
applied electric fields inside the droplet [80]. This is achieved by plac-
should be of an elastic material such as glass, silicon or metals. The
ing a circular electrode around the rim of the droplet and a point
surface requires no physio-chemical modifications. This method is
electrode at the center (Fig. 3). The electric field applied between the
not effective when the particle size is small such that the acoustic
point electrode and the circular electrode generates a radial EOF near
force becomes smaller than the drag force. For particles of diame-
the substrate. EOF velocity is given by veof = −40 4r fE/g where, E is
ter typically above 100 nm, this issue can be overcome by increasing
the electric field, f is the zeta potential of the substrate and 4r is the
the frequency and/or the acoustic energy, without causing excessive
dielectric constant of the liquid. When the radially inward EOF over-
heating of the droplet. When acoustic trapping is not effective, acous-
comes the outward capillary flow, CRE does not occur. This method
tic streaming flow can be used, which produces concentrated residue
requires precise deposition of the droplet on the electrodes and may
even with nanoparticles [86].
also involve minor heating effects. However, it is non-invasive as it
avoids the addition of surface active materials.
2.5. Marangoni flow
2.4. Vibrations and acoustics Due to the endothermic nature of evaporation, the liquid-gas
interface of the droplet is cooler than the bulk liquid. Any small
Substrate vibrations have shown to produce uniform layers in perturbation in the surface temperature creates surface tension gra-
the convective depositions of colloidal monolayers [81] and in spray dients resulting in the Marangoni flow [87–89].
coating for organic solar-cell applications [82]. The acceleration of Influence of Marangoni flow on solute deposition has been stud-
the surface deforms the air-liquid interface and the resulting pres- ied theoretically and experimentally [35,52,87]. For an evaporating
sure variations induce local flow of the liquid. This flow near the sessile droplet the direction of Marangoni flow depends on the rela-
substrate prevents the clustering of the particles at the contact line tive thermal conductivities of the liquid and the substrate. When the
and results in uniform depositions. ratio of substrate and liquid thermal conductivities (kR ) is below 1.45,
Fig. 2. Electrowetting and CRE. (a) Undisturbed evaporation and (b) evaporation under ACEW (150 V and 6 Hz). (c, d) Cartoon of the surface profile after evaporation in the both
cases. (e) The residues with PS particles and DNA (refs. [13,77]).
Fig. 3. EOF based suppression of CRE. Using surface patterned electrodes electric field is applied in the droplet. The EOF near the surface can oppose the capillary flow (dashed
arrow). The schematic of the cross-section and top view of the electrodes are also shown.
Source: Copyright ©2006, American Chemical Society.
the edge of the droplet is the coldest and the direction of the thermal is weak [1,2,90]. However, it is considerable in volatile non-aqueous
Marangoni flow along the substrate is inward towards the center of based liquids [91]. The thermal Marangoni flow can be enhanced by
the droplet [35] (Fig. 5a). elevating the temperature of the substrate [92,93] resulting in an
When the direction of the Marangoni flow is radially inward increased solute concentration near the center of the droplet [92].
and its characteristic velocity vMa ∼ ∂∂ cT DT
g is bigger than the out- An increased temperature also increases the outwards capillary flow
ward capillary flow, particles are concentrated at the center of the producing a ring as well. The result is a spot-inside-ring or an
droplet. In the case of water droplets, the thermal Marangoni flow eye-like pattern. The effect of buoyant motion of the liquid from
Fig. 4. Acoustics and CRE. (a) A droplet is placed on a ‘superstrate’, coupled to a piezoelectric device (IDT) that generates surface acoustic waves (SAW). (b) The particles do not
reach to the contact line as they are trapped in the nodes of the standing capillary waves and pressure waves. Heavier silica particles get trapped in the pressure nodes near the
superstrate surface. (c) Evaporation of a droplet with dispersed PS particles of diameter 1 lm under SAW (frequency 10 MHz; power 30 dBm) produced spot-like residue. (d) The
range of frequencies and particle sizes at which a successful suppression is obtained. The filled circles indicate a successful suppression. At higher frequencies larger particles
obstructed the receding contact line and produced coffee-rings (Ref. [84]).
the hot substrate to relatively cooler liquid-air interface is often Marangoni flow is very strong in the drops of binary mixtures,
negligible [92]. for example, water and ethanol mixture. Here, one liquid being more
The droplet surface can be locally heated using a laser beam volatile than the other, different flow regimes exist during the evap-
to generate radially inward flow [94]. In this study, an infra-red oration. As shown by Zhong et al., water-ethanol binary mixture
laser of wavelength 2.9 l m (as water has strong absorption at drop suspended with alumina nanoparticles demonstrates three dis-
this range) was irradiated at the liquid-air interface of the droplet tinct regimes: the initial strong flow that takes the particle to the
(Fig. 5b). When the laser exposure time was at least 60% of the liquid-air interface; Marangoni flow; and evaporation of the water
total evaporation time of the droplet CRE was fully suppressed. The content [98].
residue morphology can be varied from uniform disc to spot-like Certain applications, for example, biochemical analyses do not
deposition either by increasing the exposure time or decreasing the favor CRE suppression methodologies using additives such as sur-
ratio between the laser spot size and the droplet diameter (Fig. 5c, factants [1,2,18,90,100,101] and proteins [104]. Majumder et al.
d) [94]. demonstrated a method that avoids additives by simply drying an
Without rising the temperature of the system strong Marangoni aqueous droplet in an atmosphere containing ethanol vapor [105].
flow can be generated mixing solvents [6,23,95,96,99] or adding sur- The preferential evaporation of the water at the contact line gener-
factants [1,2,18,90,100,101] in the liquid. Surfactants decrease the ates gradients in the surface tension, which drive strong recirculat-
surface tension of the liquid (say, water). As the liquid evaporates ing Marangoni flow. This method was used for depositing catalyst
the concentration of the surfactants increases locally, generating nanoparticles homogeneously for the purpose of growing single-
strong gradients in the surface tension. The resulting Marangoni walled carbon nanotubes as well as manufacturing plasmonic films
flow can overcome the capillary flow. Sodium dodecyl sulfate is an of gold nanoparticles [105].
example of a commonly used surfactant. In bacterial systems, bio- Marangoni flow based methods require either heating of the
logically produced surfactants can also induce Marangoni flow and liquid or addition of surfactants. Thus, it may not be suitable for
suppress CRE [102]. Marin et al. showed that the nature of surfac- applications in which heating or chemical alteration of the sam-
tant (ionic or non-ionic) is important in determining the residue ple is undesirable. On the other hand, chemical additive induced
shape. Their particle tracking measurements showed that the con- Marangoni flow offers an easy solution to overcome the CRE. It does
vective flow can reverse direction depending upon the nature of not require any physical interference during the evaporation and is
the surfactant by making the liquid-air interface either rigid or independent of the system parameters. This method is thus suitable
elastic [103]. in most of the printing applications. However, sample preparation
Michen et al. demonstrated that addition of bovine serum albu- processes for biochemical analyses may not prefer such chemical
min (BSA) to suspensions of nanoparticles avoided drying artefacts in addition based methods. In Marangoni flow based methods, dynamic
the sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy [104]. control of the suppression process, for example, as in the case of EW,
In this process, BSA not only stabilized the individual particles EOF or acoustics, is not possible.
against aggregation but also induced Marangoni flow and improved
wetting on the solid surface. The optimum concentration of BSA was 2.6. Interactions at solid-liquid and liquid-gas interfaces
estimated depending upon the volume fraction of particle in the
suspension and also the particle properties. Similarly, addition of Various investigations have shown that tuning the particle-
low amount of ethylene glycol (10–30 vol%) in colloidal suspensions particle interactions [106] and particle-interface interactions
produced uniform deposits [96,97]. [107,108] can lead to the suppression of CRE. The particle-particle
Fig. 5. Marangoni flow and CRE. (a) Experimental observations (squares) and numerical calculations (triangles) of the circulation reversal in evaporating droplets. From top to
bottom, the squares represent evaporation of chloroform, isopropanol, ethanol and methanol on polydimethylsiloxane surface. The open symbols represent that the observed
direction of circulation is consistent with temperature decreasing with distance from the contact line and the closed symbols represent the reverse circulation. Adapted with
permission from: [35] Copyright ©2007, American Physical Society. (b) Particle deposition can be controlled by heating the surface of a colloidal droplet using a laser beam. The
laser beam induced flow (yellow arrows) is in the opposite direction to the capillary flow (black arrows). The red dashed line indicates the droplet profile towards the end of the
evaporation. (c) The shape of the stain depended on the ratio of exposure time (toff ) and the evaporation time (tfL ). (d) Optical images of residues (0.5 lm PS particles) depending
upon the ratio toff /tfL . Adapted with permission from: [94] Copyright ©2016, Royal Society of Chemistry.
interactions can prevent their transport to the contact line as the anionic polystyrene nanoparticles. This allowed tuning the particle
particle aggregates settle down on to the substrate surface. The interaction with LG interface optically, achieving controllability on
aggregation can be achieved for example, by increasing the salt the shape of the dried patterns [125].
concentration of the liquid or tuning the pH of the liquid to reduce Evaporation of aqueous suspensions of poly(N-
the inter-particle electrostatic repulsion [109]. When aggregation isopropylacrylamide)(pNIPAm) microgel (hydrogel) particles
is present, the shape of the residue depends upon the evaporation produces uniform deposition [122,123]. Microgel particles are
rate [110,111]. Dugyala et al. showed that when the evaporation rate spherical polymeric networks swollen when dispersed in a solvent.
was lowered uniform disc-like deposits were formed [111]. Other pNIPAm is thermally sensitive, which shows a volume phase transi-
examples for particle-particle interaction preventing CRE are the tion around 31 ◦ C in aqueous media. The pNIPAm microgel particles
formation of transparent films of TiO2 nanoparticles [112], uniform adsorb at the LG interface during the evaporation [124] prevent-
films by silver nano-ellipsoids [113] and uniform films when casting ing their non-uniform transport to the contact line during the
a colloidal suspension of graphene oxide and titania on glass sur- evaporation [122,123].
face [114]. Such uniform hybrid films can have applications in the The particles suspended in the liquid can be captured at the
deposition of high-quality membranes from liquid phases [114]. LG interface by allowing it to descent rapidly by fast evapora-
The interactions of particles at the solid-liquid (SL) interface, for tion [126,127]. The average descending rate of the interface is h/tf ,
example by DLVO (Derjaguin Landau Verwey Overbeek) interactions where h is the initial droplet height and tf is the evaporation time.
(i.e. the sum of electrostatic and van der Waals forces), can mitigate The particles diffusing vertically upwards are captured when the
the transport of particles to the contact line and produce homoge- descending rate of the interface is faster than the average diffusion
neous residues [36,109]. The surface charge of the particle and the rate, 2(Dt/p)1/2 (D: the diffusion coefficient), of the particle. Once
substrate can be controlled by changing the pH of the liquid [36] the particles are trapped at the LG interface, the resulting deposit
or adding surfactants into the liquid [115]. The surfactants adsorb becomes homogeneous (Fig. 7).
on the surface of the particles and substrate. Therefore, the charge The methods utilizing the interfacial interactions are easy to be
of the surfactant molecules can be utilized to alter the particles deployed as they do not require any external devices to generate
and the substrate interactions. [115]. Bhardwaj et al. showed that forces (such as hydrodynamic, electric and acoustic) that interfere
competence of three convective mechanisms i.e. the capillary flow, with the capillary flow during the evaporation. This feature makes
particle migration to the solid surface by DLVO attractive forces and the technique widely applicable on a range of substrates and in
the Marangoni flow determines the morphology of the residue [36] applications like inkjet printing. Tuning the liquid properties (say,
(Fig. 6a). Using ellipsoidal particles of different aspect ratios Dugyala pH) or addition of surfactants forms uniform deposition of colloids
et al. showed that CRE was stronger when the strength of particle- in the droplet. Particularly, the method using ellipsoidal particles
particle repulsion was higher than the particle-substrate attraction. does not require any such tuning of the chemical environment of
However, CRE was suppressed when both particle-substrate and the liquid and thus it is suitable when chemical additives are not
particle-particle interactions were attractive [109] (Fig. 6b). desired. Even a small amount of ellipsoidal particles can change the
When particles adsorb to the liquid-gas (LG) interface they deposition pattern of a droplet containing majority of spherical par-
deform the meniscus generating particle-particle attractive forces of ticles. The residue formation with particle-particle interaction can be
capillary nature [116,117] (Fig. 6c, d). This interaction is strong and further investigated with mixture of particles having different prop-
long-range particularly between ellipsoidal particles, which eventu- erties (size and surface species). It may generate new patterns as the
ally generates homogeneous residues (Fig. 6e) [118]. This method mutual interactions between the particles vary.
works even with mixtures of spherical and ellipsoidal particles pro-
vided that the sphere diameter is larger than the minor axis of the 2.7. Transition of liquid property
ellipsoid. Even a small amount of ellipsoidal particles, i.e. about 130
times lesser volume fraction compared to the spherical ones, could Modifying the liquid properties is a common strategy adapted for
suppress CRE [118]. avoiding CRE in inkjet printing [8,9]. Uniform deposits can obtained
The trapping of particles at the LG interface depends on the curva- by altering the composition of the colloidal ink solution to avail of
ture of the interface [119] and wetting of the particle surface. It is not the Marangoni effects and to induce fast drying [6,7,130-133].
possible to trap a particle when its surface is very hydrophilic. This One may assume that simply increasing the viscosity of the
issue can be overcome by introducing surfactants in the liquid. In liquid can suppress the capillary flow. It is possible only if the vis-
this case, the interactions depends on the charge of both the particles cous effects dominate the capillary effects. The relative importance
and the surfactant molecules [120,121]. When oppositely charged of both these properties can be compared by the capillary number,
particle-surfactant mixtures were used, the adsorption of the surfac- Ca = gvrad /c. Putting typical numbers for the capillary flow velocity
tants onto the particle surface enhanced the affinity of those particles vrad = 10 lm/s, for water we obtain Ca ∼ 10-7 . It implies that for vis-
to the LG interface. This affinity was stronger at intermediate concen- cous effects to play a major role, i.e. for Ca ≥ 1, there should be at
trations of the surfactant as the particles became more hydrophobic least 107 fold increase in the viscosity [128]. Therefore, in practice
(Fig. 6f, g). The energy required to bring a particle from the inter- increasing the viscosity is not a recipe for suppressing the capillary
face to the water phase is given by Eiw = p4 a2 c(1 − cos h)2 , where flow.
a is the diameter of the particle. As a result, an increase in the par- Since very high viscosity is a bottleneck in printing applications,
ticle hydrophobicity i.e. an increase in h should cost more energy viscous liquids with tailored rheological properties are needed. For
to bring the particles back into the water. Therefore, increasing the example, liquids that can undergo sol-gel transition i.e. change from
hydrophobicity tends the particles to remain trapped at the interface. a easily flowing low viscosity solution into a complex fluid that flows
In the converse case, when like-charged particle-surfactant mixtures above a given shear. Droplets of colloidal suspensions containing
were used, particles did not adsorb to the LG interface and CRE was laponite, a synthetic clay that swells to form a gel when dispersed in
observed [121]. water, does not produce CRE due to the sol-gel transition of laponite
The particle affinity to the LG interface can be controlled during evaporation [128,129]. As the droplet evaporates, the laponite
by modulating the surfactant-particle interactions optically [125]. concentration increases forming a gel. It resists the capillary stresses
Photosensitive cationic surfactant AzoTAB changes between trans and the resulting flow of the particles. The advantage of sol-gel tran-
(less hydrophilic) and cis (more hydrophilic) states when irradi- sition is more than simply increasing the viscosity with additives
ated with blue light. The trans-molecules easily adsorbed on to the as the resulting gel is a yield stress fluid. For example, laponite
Fig. 6. Interfacial effects and CRE. (a) Phase diagram for evaporative self-assembly of nanoparticles. The final pattern shape is determined by the relative strength of three
characteristic velocities: capillary flow (Vrad ), velocity due to attractive DLVO forces (VDLV O+ ), and Marangoni flow (VMa ). Adapted with permission from: [36] Copyright ©2010,
American Chemical Society. (b) Optical images of dried patterns obtained with hematite ellipsoidal particles on a glass slide at different pH values. The zeta potentials of the
particles and the glass surface are also shown. Intermediate pH values generated uniform deposits. Adapted with permission from: [109] Copyright ©2015, American Chemical
Society. (c) The sketch of overall potential in the interaction of two particles at the LG interface. At small distances the capillary attraction, which scales as L- 4 , is strong enough to
overcome the electrostatic dipole-dipole repulsion, which scales as L- 3 . rc is the minimum distance between the particles. Recreated from (recreated from [116]).(d) Deformation
profiles of the LG interface around an ellipsoidal particle with aspect ratio 5.0. Adapted with permission from: [117] Copyright ©2014, American Chemical Society. (e) Uniform
deposition occurred when colloidal droplet containing ellipsoidal particles dried on solid surface. a is the major-minor axis aspect ratio of the particles. Adapted with permission
from: [118] Copyright ©2011, Nature. Evaporation of a droplet containing anionic PS particles (0.5 lm diameter) with (f) and without (g) surfactant (DTAB). For the droplet
containing DTAB, particles accumulated at the interface eventually leading to a fairly homogeneous pattern. For the surfactant-free droplet, particle adsorption at the LG interface
was much weaker, thus showing CRE. Adapted with permission from: [121] Copyright ©2015, American Chemical Society.
suspensions are highly viscous, yet above a given shear rate they flow weight the contact line moves slowly leaving a continuous layer of
like a low viscosity liquid. polymer [134].
Eales et al. studied the evaporation of polymer droplets numer- Droplets containing pNIPAm-modified colloids formed homo-
ically to understand the ways to control the residue forma- geneous residues due to faster monomer polymerization during
tion [50,51]. They found that polymers with larger molecular weight evaporation [135]. Van den Berg et al. achieved thermally induced
mitigated CRE. Similarly, a reduction in the Péclet number, which gelation of TiO2 ink containing special polymers [136]. Here, the col-
implies a diffusion dominated transport, also mitigated CRE. This is loidal stability was initially achieved by the adsorption of polymers
because the diffusion of the polymer counteracts its transport by (poly(vinyl methyl ether) block-poly(vinyloxy-4-butyric acid)) on
the weak capillary flow. Experimental studies also show that the the surfaces of the particles inducing steric repulsion. When the tem-
dried pattern depends on the molecular size. With high molecular perature was raised above 33 ◦ C, poly(vinyl methyl ether) became
Fig. 7. Thermally induced surface capturing. When temperature is raised the interface descends more quickly than particle diffusion, capturing the particles at the interface. It
produces uniform deposition (see ref. [127]).
insoluble and the adsorbed layer of polymers collapsed on the sur- towards the center of the droplet. The restoring time of the spherical
face of the particle destroying the colloidal stability. The resulting cap shape during the condensation phase sets an optimum duration
aggregation and increase in viscosity eliminated CRE. of the condensation and evaporation phases. The advantage of the
The substrate temperature can also be a control parameter humidity cycling method is that it does not require tuning material
in gelation as demonstrated by Soltman et al. [137]. They inkjet properties or introduction of any external fields. This method is suit-
printed uniform lines without CRE by optimizing the substrate tem- able for solutions that can dry and refluidize for example, polymer
perature, deposition frequency and the droplet spacing using the solutions.
polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)poly(styrenesulfonate)
on glass surfaces coated with poly(4-vinylphenol) dielectric. Higher 2.9. Porous substrates
temperatures (above about 30 ◦ C) of the substrate produced CRE but
lower temperatures suppressed it [137]. When droplet evaporation occurs on porous substrates the
Evaporation of water droplets containing lysozyme was studied residue morphology depends upon factors such as porosity and the
using AFM and optical microscopy [138]. Lysozyme is a globular pro- depth of the pores [139]. When the solvent is fully imbibed into the
tein, for example, present in human tears and saliva. As the droplet pores the competition between the rate of particle motion to the
diameter varied from 1 to 50 l m, above a critical diameter the contact line and the rate of solvent infiltration determines the final
shape of the residue changed from cap to ring. This critical diameter deposition pattern. The CRE is suppressed when the infiltration into
of the droplet systematically increased with lysozyme concentra- the pores is faster. If the infiltration of the solvent is not complete,
tion. Below the critical diameter the Péclet numbers (Pe) were small. then the competition between particle motion and evaporation rate
When Pe < 1, the lysozyme particles were transported mainly by of the remaining liquid governs the final deposition patterns. Similar
diffusion and the deposit patterns were strongly depended on the conditions govern the evaporation and pattern formation on paper
concentration. It means that before considerable amount of par- substrates [140].
ticles reached at the droplet-edge gelation occurred there due to
evaporation. 2.10. Other methods
2.8. Humidity cycling Other methods found in the literature are depositing multi
droplets and using inclined surfaces. Depositing multiple droplets
It was shown that modifying the local atmospheric conditions, subsequently on an initially formed non-uniform residue can even-
for example, switching between evaporation and condensation pro- tually form a deposit without thick edges [143]. The principle of this
cesses suppresses CRE of polymer droplets [141]. When the residue technique lies in the competition between the time scales of parti-
was exposed to the solvent vapor for an optimum duration and dried cle diffusion and solvent evaporation from the printed deposit. The
again, its morphology changed from ring to disc. The numerical stud- residue formation on inclined surfaces [144] is also interesting in
ies by Eales show that CRE is eliminated due to the refluidization of view of the suppression of CRE. Simply tilting the substrate at an
gelled regions during the condensation [142]. Refluidization brings angle of 10◦ and raising its temperature (50 ◦ C) formed a uniform
back the spherical cap shape to minimize the surface energy. The film of silver nanoparticles and nanowires, which was used for SERS
process of regaining the spherical cap shape induces an inward flow studies [16,145].
2.11. Advantages and limitations for integration with conventional systems (say, printers). This lim-
itation may not exist in the case of solute or solvent modification.
Fig. 8 provides a compact overview of the methods utilized to The shape of the suppressed residue is also important depending
suppress CRE. The rows are arranged to identify the methods in upon the application. In the case of printing disc-like uniformly dis-
columns based on their mode of action, advantages and limitations. tributed residue is preferred. Such deposition is also useful in the
The first three rows point out which one of the three physical sample preparation for SERS measurements. In the sample prepa-
approaches the methods utilize, namely de-pinning, disturbing the ration for MALDI concentrated spot-like residues are preferred.
capillary flow and trapping the solute. The advantages and limita- Spot-like residues are formed when the contact line is continuously
tions are categorized from an application point of view. de-pinning during the evaporation. However, a disc-like, large and
As shown in Fig. 8, every method has its own successful working uniform residue requires the contact line to be pinned but the solutes
range and limitations. A common scenario where most of the meth- are not transported to there. This scenario can be achieved in meth-
ods are pushed to the limits is the presence of nanoparticles in the ods that trap the solute, namely, the ones using acoustic trapping at
liquid. The nanoparticles quickly move into the microscopic regions high frequencies and interactions at LG and SL interfaces. Dynamic
of the liquid wedge at the contact line inducing strong pinning. How- controllability in the suppression methods helps to control the shape
ever, such pinning is minimized on highly hydrophobic surfaces and of the residue. It also helps in patterning particles with various
when externally induced flow (e.g. by Marangoni effect, ACEW and designs broadening the applications.
SAW) is much stronger than the capillary flow. The hydrophobic
surfaces enhance adsorption of hydrophobic molecules (say, in bio-
logical samples). The hydrophilic surfaces minimize such adsorption 3. Utilization of CRE
but they in general increase the CRE because of the strong capillary
flows due to the small contact angle. Therefore, methods having the Evaporation of droplets can be exploited as a method to con-
combination of the use of moderately hydrophilic surfaces and exter- centrate its solutes in it. Evaporation of the solvent can increase
nally induced strong flow will be an optimum solution to prevent the analyte concentration making the reactions more proba-
CRE. ble [146,147]. When strong CRE exists, the solute is deposited at the
When external forcing is applied during evaporation as in ACEW contact line increasing their concentration there. This deposition of
and SAW, the accompanying devices make the method unsuitable solutes and particles are exploited as a pre-concentration method
Fig. 8. Comparison of different methods. The working principle, advantages and limitations are illustrated.
or forming patterns of particles. In this section, we discuss such used as the substrate in SOR method. Drying process on hydrophobic
utilization of CRE. surfaces forms smaller rings with higher solute density as the contact
line is pinned only in the later stages of the evaporation. Liu et
3.1. Biochemical applications al. demonstrated that the SOR method enhanced the fluorescence
detection of orally administrated berberine in human urine [148].
Concentrating solutes at the rim of the droplet by CRE is called the Similarly, fluorescent detection of trace levels of tetracycline [149],
self-ordered ring (SOR) method (Fig. 9a). It acts as a pre-concentration quinidine sulfate in serum samples [150] and fluorescein [151] was
procedure before various analyses. Often a hydrophobic surface is demonstrated based on the SOR method.
Fig. 9. The CRE is used as a beneficial effect in various applications. (a) The enhancement of the analyte concentration at the ring along with the Ag-nanoparticles improves
detection by SERS. Adapted with permission from: [17] Copyright ©2014, Royal Society of Chemistry. (b) An immunoassay is demonstrated with a solution of Au coated polystyrene
nanoparticles and Plasmodium falciparum biomarker. (ii–iii) When the droplet of this solution dries on a glass slide, the biomarker proteins are aggregated with the particles
at the contact line, mimicking an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Adapted with permission from: [21] Copyright ©2014, American Chemical Society. (c) The CRE detects
mutated protein haemoglobin (h-HbS) from its native form (h-HbA) when blood is dried with dispersed polystyrene particles of different charge. (Left panel): the adsorption of
proteins alter the charge of the particles influencing the deposit morphology (paths 1 and 4). The exposure to charged (path 2) and hydrophobic (path 3) moieties inverts the
effect. (Right panel): there is a notable difference in the patterns formed with healthy and pathogenic form of haemoglobin with (right) and without (left) the presence of anionic
polystyrene particles. Adapted with permission from: [164] Copyright ©2016, American Chemical Society. (d) (Left): The CRE is used for chromatography for size-dependent
particle separation near the contact line. (Right): Optical fluorescence image showing the separation of 40 nm (green), 1 lm (red), and 2 lm (blue) particles after evaporation.
Adapted with permission from: [22] Copyright ©2011, American Chemical Society.
Wen et al. developed an aptamer biosensor based on the the particles or cells flow into the liquid wedge they get spatially
enhanced solute concentration at the ring [20]. They detected a- distributed depending upon their size. This method has a separa-
thrombin in human serum and four-fold-diluted whole blood. The tion resolution on the order of 100 nm and a dynamic range from 10
SOR method gave a lower limit sensitivity of detection of 2 ng/mL nm to a few tens of micrometers (Fig. 9d). A similar technique was
(54 pM) in serum, and 4 ng/mL (105 pM) in the blood. Similarly, a demonstrated making use of the thermally driven strong Marangoni
malaria diagnostic platform was also reported based on the SOR flow generated by heating the substrate [167]. The strong Marangoni
method to detect Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein- flow pushes the particles well into the liquid wedge increasing the
II, which is a biomarker indicative of the P. falciparum parasite resolution of separation.
strain [21,152] (Fig. 9b). In this sensor, gold-plated and surface Yadav et al. used CRE for the encapsulation of gold nanoparticles
chemical-modified polystyrene microspheres bind with the protein in poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) matrix using inkjet printing [168].
and form a sandwiched assay with the glass substrate at the contact Here, an aqueous solution of the gold nanoparticles was deposited on
line. The ring formation allowed sensitive detection with the naked a PHB surface and allowed to dry. Another droplet of PHB was added
eye at protein concentrations as low as 10 pM [21]. on to the dried spot and the miscible nature of the PHB substrate and
When SOR method is used in the Raman analysis (Fig. 9a) it is PHB droplet encapsulated the nanoparticles in PHB.
known as the ‘droplet coating deposition Raman’, which has shown The pre-concentration of samples using SOR method is very cost
its advantages, for example, in proteomics [153–156]. In particu- effective and require no special equipment. It is highly useful in
lar, in SERS the nanoparticle aggregates at the ring can serve as SERS and MALDI based sensors where dried sample are used for the
hot spots as the chemical constituents to be detected get packed analysis. Although the SOR method increases the sensitivity, a more
there along with the particles. The CRE assisted SERS measure- sensitive detection can be achieved if one could suppress CRE to
ments [17,157] particularly, the detection of polycyclic aromatic concentrate all the solute into a single spot. This idea was demon-
hydrocarbons in river water [158] and glycated haemoglobin [159], strated in the case of MALDI analysis [13–15]. One major issue in
which is a promising target for monitoring the long term history of the SOR method is the non-specific adsorption of the active compo-
diabetes, are successful examples. nents on the substrate surface. Adsorption will prevent the analytes
The drying patterns of biological fluids can have applications in from reaching the contact line. The adsorption is much pronounced
forensics and diagnostics. For example, blood droplets form charac- on hydrophobic substrates. Suppression methods based on acoustics,
teristic patterns upon drying [19], which are interesting in foren- Marangoni effect and interfacial effects that are independent of the
sics [160]. For example, shape of the dried blood droplets can reveal wettability of the substrate are suitable for concentrating biological
the angle and velocity of the ‘deposition’ on the wall. Similarly, the samples.
dried patterns of blood can also reveal information regarding the dis- One another issue is the fact that nanoparticles or molecules can
ease status. The diagnostic value of dried blood samples for early get trapped with the salt crystals in the bulk of the droplet prevent-
detection of cancer was identified by Bolen in 1942 itself [161,162]. ing their concentration. It occurs especially in the drying of biological
Later, various other studies were performed to investigate the diag- fluids. Trantum et al. overcame this issue by adding glycerol in the
nostic potential of the pattern on dried blood droplets as reviewed droplet, which prevented complete drying, thus avoided the salt
by Chen et al. [163]. crystallization [166]. Concentrating the solute much before the com-
Recently, Devineau et al. demonstrated that the patterns of the pletion of the drying can prevent the interference of the salt crystals.
blood mixed with polystyrene particles differ when there is a point A suitable method in this context is acoustic streaming [86]. Further
mutation in the protein haemoglobin, i.e. variation from healthy investigations are required to optimize CRE based biosensing and
form (h-HbA) to the mutant pathogenic form (h-HbS) (Fig. 9c) [164]. chromatography especially in the presence of biological samples.
In the droplet, h-HbS adsorbed on to the anionic particles result- Diagnostics based on the pattern formation can detect the pres-
ing their migration to the liquid/air interface by the exposure of the ence of bio-markers in biological fluids. However, this detection is
hydrophobic regions of the adsorbed protein. It resulted in the sup- qualitative to identify the presence or absence of a particular species.
pression of CRE whereas the particle-h-HbA combination formed a Further investigations can be performed to relate the patterns to
clear CRE. Similarly, Li et al. used the shape of the residue as a readout quantitative amount of the species. Another possible area of study is
for detecting DNA hybridization [165]. They functionalized the sur- the pattern of cracks formed on the residue of biological samples, for
face of microparticles with single-stranded oligonucleotide probes. example, blood, to predict a disease state and its progression.
When the complementary target DNA was introduced, hybridization
occurred, connecting multiple particles. Such aggregation of the par- 3.2. Industrial applications
ticles distorted the meniscus surrounding them inducing long-range
capillary attraction and eventually influenced the residue shape. This Evaporative self-assembly by CRE can form patterns using micro-
method demonstrated high specificity and could identify even a and nanoparticles as the building blocks. For example, ordered 3D
single mismatch of a nucleotide. structures of particles can be produced by evaporation for photonic
Trantum et al. demonstrated concept of a biosensor based on applications [169,170]. These applications require good control over
the Marangoni flow in an evaporating drop [166]. They detected the the self-assembly process. In this regard, Choi et al. demonstrated
presence of M13 bacteriophage as a model target. Marangoni flow a finely controlled way of assembling 3D structures of silica, metal
concentrated the aggregates of dispersed 1 l m-diameter particles, oxide (TiO2 , ZnO) and metallic nanoparticles [171] (Fig. 10a, b). Here,
which are surface functionalized with anti-M13 monoclonal anti- CRE drives particles into the photo-patterned rectangular wells and
bodies, formed in the presence of the target. In the absence of the trenches on the substrate. Various patterns are formed by adjust-
bacteriophage, the aggregation did not occur and the dispersed par- ing the concentration and size of the particles in the solution. After
ticles did not get concentrated at the center of the droplet. Measuring the particle deposition in the wells or trenches the photoresist is
the size of the final spot using standard microscopy they achieved removed to obtain the defined patterns.
a limit-of-detection of approximately 100 fM. In this sensor, the The CRE was used to fabricate rings of synthesized mesoporous
choice of suitable substrate material is important as the direction of particles. The porous property of these particles was used for absorb-
Marangoni flow depends on the relative thermal conductivity of the ing fluorescent dye for sensing applications [172]. Combination of
substrate and the liquid [35]. CRE with dielectrophoresis was demonstrated to produce concen-
Separation of nanoparticles, micro-organisms and mammalian tric patterns of polystyrene and TiO2 nanoparticles [173]. Here,
cells in a liquid droplet was demonstrated using the CRE [22]. When concentric electrodes patterned on the substrate were used to apply
Fig. 10. CRE based patterning of particles. (a) Patterns of silica particles 1 lm. (b) Patterns with particles of two different diameters (1 and 3 lm). Adapted with permission
from: [171] Copyright ©2010, American Chemical Society. (c) Optical image of a grid of conducting twin lines of silver nanoparticles. Adapted with permission from: [177] Copy-
right ©2013, American Physical Society. (d) An array of interconnected rings of silver nanoparticles acts as transparent conductive coating. Adapted with permission from: [179]
Copyright ©2009, American Chemical Society. (e) Optical image, surface profile, and schematic cross-section of a cantilever strengthened by printed silver nanoparticles. Adapted
with permission from: [183] Copyright ©2014, American Physical Society.
AC signal (0.1–100 Hz and 5 V) during the evaporation of the droplet. This method consisted of evaporation of CO2 -enriched water micro-
The spacing of the concentric rings and the patterned areas depended droplets onto substrates heated to 120 ◦ C. The CaCO3 scaffolds have
on the frequencies of the applied AC signal and the direction of use in enhancing bone healing around titanium implants.
the dielectrophoretic force. This force is negative and positive for In an another interesting experiment, CRE was used for fabri-
polystyrene (PS) and TiO2 particles, respectively. cating U-bar shaped micro-cantilevers [183] (Fig. 10e). It is difficult
The CRE was utilized in electronics applications, for example, to to fabricate curved surfaces using conventional microfabrication
define channels in the fabrication of metal oxide thin-film transis- techniques. Due to CRE the inkjet printed silver nanoparticles formed
tors [174] and make high resolution patterns such as conductive thicker edges on the bar increasing its effective stiffness. Tuning the
wires of nanoparticles [8,175-178] (Fig. 10c). Such simple inkjet drying conditions the height of the edges can be controlled.
printing based methods can avoid complex lithographic steps and Self-assembly of particles by CRE is a cheap and simple method to
produce lines as thin as 5–10 l m. Transparent conductive coatings fabricate photonic crystals and conducting wires. The self-assembly
were also fabricated based CRE [179]. These coatings consisted of process depends strongly on the evaporation rate resulting in square,
2D array of interconnected ring-like deposits of silver nanoparticles hexagonal and random ordering of the particles [32]. Slow evapora-
(Fig. 10d). The individual rings had a diameter of about 150 l m, tion deposits particles at a slow rate allowing them enough time to
which were obtained by drying inkjet printed droplets [179]. Par- form ordered structures. However, fast evaporation rushes the par-
allel twin conducting lines were fabricated by drying a ribbon-like ticles to the contact line depositing them in an orderless fashion.
droplet formed by a series of inkjet printed droplets containing silver Methods using surface templates, for example, as shown by Choi et
nanoparticles [177,178] and multi-walled carbon nanotubes [180]. al. can produce patterns having well defined edges.
Ma et al. produced twin lines of particles by evaporation com- When the particles are of higher density compared to the liq-
bined with a technique called electroless plating to adhere the parti- uid, they may sink directly on to the surface of the substrate before
cle reaching at the contact line to the substrate. The electroless plat- reaching at the contact line. This scenario can result in a spread of
ing uses a solution of metal salt, reducing agent, a complexing agent, the particles on the surface rather than thin lines. However, this dif-
and additives. The metal nucleates on the catalytically active surface ficulty can be overcome by tuning the evaporation rate and using
producing strong bond between the surface and the metal particles. small particles (say, nanoparticles). In general, controlling the evap-
They inkjet printed the aqueous solution of poly(dopamine) silver oration rate, liquid properties (such as density and composition)
nanoparticles on glass substrate to form twin lines followed by its and substrate wettability help formation of thin wire-like patterns
immersion into silver nitrate solution for electroless plating [178]. of particles. When the deposition process is well optimized the
Using CRE, Khapli et al. demonstrated fabrication of porous particles tightly assemble at the contact line forming a conduc-
films [181] and scaffolds [182] from a wide variety of ceramic mate- tive wire even without additional processing for example thermal
rials such as CaCO3 , ZnO, CuO, Co3 O4 , Co-doped ZnO and Ag2 O. sintering. However, thermal sintering can improve the quality by
connecting the particles firmly avoiding cracks and thus making [7] Friederich A, Binder JR, Bauer W. Rheological control of the coffee stain effect
for inkjet printing of ceramics. J Am Ceram Soc 2013;96:2093–9.
the wires robust [175,177]. Thermal sintering is not compatible
[8] Kuang M, Wang L, Song Y. Controllable printing droplets for high-resolution
when the wires need to be produced on polymer substrates. The patterns. Adv Mater 2014;26:6950–8.
method developed by Zhang et al. could pattern wires on flexible [9] Sun J, Bao B, He M, Zhou H, Song Y. Recent advances in controlling
the depositing morphologies of inkjet droplets. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
poly(ethyleneterephthalate) substrates with a sintering process at
2015;7:28086–99.
room temperature [176]. CRE combined with electroless plating is a [10] Blossey R, Bosio A. Contact line deposits on cDNA microarrays: a “twin-spot
suitable method to pattern strong wires on flexible substrates [178], effect”. Langmuir 2002;18:2952–4.
where no thermal treatments are required. [11] Dugas V, Broutin J, Souteyrand E. Droplet evaporation study applied to DNA
chip manufacturing. Langmuir 2005;21:9130–6.
A control over the evaporative deposition process is necessary [12] Hu JB, Chen YC, Urban PL. Coffee-Ring effects in laser desorption/ionization
to design new patterns and fine tune them. For example, controlled mass spectrometry. Anal Chim Acta 2013;766:77–82.
evaporation of polymer solutions has produced well defined con- [13] Mampallil D, Eral HB, van den Ende D, Mugele F. Control of evaporating
complex fluids through electrowetting. Soft Matter 2012;8:10614–7.
centric gradient rings [184–187]. Here, the control was achieved [14] Kudina O, Eral B, Mugele F. E-MALDI: an electrowetting-enhanced drop drying
by using microparticles as templates or capillary bridges in con- method for MALDI mass spectrometry. Anal Chem 2016;88:4669–75.
fined geometries composed of either two cylindrical mica surfaces [15] Lai YH, Cai YH, Lee H, Ou YM, Hsiao CH, Tsao CW. et al. Reducing spatial hetero-
geneity of MALDI samples with Marangoni flows during sample preparation. J
placed perpendicular to one another [185] or a sphere placed on flat Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2016;27:1314–21.
surface [186,187]. [16] Zhou W, Hu A, Bai S, Ma Y, Su Q. Surface-enhanced Raman spectra of medicines
A dynamic control over the deposition process can give more with large-scale self-assembled silver nanoparticle films based on the modified
coffee ring effect. Nanoscale Res Lett 2014;9:87.
options to tune the patterns. Dynamic control of the deposition
[17] Wang W, Yin Y, Tana Z, Liu J. Coffee-ring effect-based simultaneous SERS
process can be achieved by using the same methods used for the sup- substrate fabrication and analyte enrichment for trace analysis. Nanoscale
pression of CRE, such as electrowetting, electroosmotic flow, laser 2014;6:9588–93.
[18] Li P, Li Y, Zhou ZK, Tang S, Yu XF, Xiao S. et al. Evaporative self-assembly of
irradiation and acoustics. Turning the external forcing on and off
gold nanorods into macroscopic 3D plasmonic superlattice arrays. Adv Mat
during the evaporation, a positive and negative feedback in the depo- 2016;28:2511–7.
sition process can be induced. Acoustics based method offers an [19] Brutin D, Sobac B, Loquet B, Sampol J. Pattern formation in drying drops of
additional capability for preferential control over the particles being blood. J Fluid Mech 2011;667:85–95.
[20] Wen JT, Ho CM, Lillehoj PB. Coffee ring aptasensor for rapid protein detection.
deposited based on their size. Such a dynamic control of the CRE is Langmuir 2013;29:8440–6.
not possible in methods involving modification of the solvent or the [21] Gulka CP, Swartz JD, Trantum JR, Davis KM, Peak CM, Denton AJ. et al.
solute. Coffee rings as low-resource diagnostics: detection of the malaria biomarker
Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich protein-II using a surface-coupled ring
of ni(II)NTA gold-plated polystyrene particles ACS. Appl Mater Interfaces
4. Summary 2014;6:6257–63.
[22] Wong TS, Chen TH, Shen X, Ho CM. Nanochromatography driven by the coffee
ring effect. Anal Chem 2011;83:1871–3.
This review summarizes various strategies related to suppres- [23] de Gans BJ, Schubert US. Inkjet printing of well-defined polymer dots and
sion and utilization of CRE. We have highlighted scientific and arrays. Langmuir 2004;20:7789–93.
technological developments initiated by the rich physical phenom- [24] Han W, Lin Z. Learning from “coffee-rings”: ordered structures enabled
by controlled evaporative self-assembly. Angew Chem Int Ed 2012;51:
ena involved in CRE. The curiosity driven scientific studies aimed at 1534–46.
understanding of CRE and the application-motivated studies focus- [25] Shao JJ, Lv W, Yang QH. Self-assembly of graphene oxide at interfaces. Adv Mat
ing on how to avoid CRE have given rise to novel manufacturing 2014;26:5586.
[26] Zou J, Kim F. Diffusion driven layer-by-layer assembly of graphene oxide
approaches. We believe emerging challenges highlighted in Section nanosheets into porous three-dimensional macrostructures. Nat Commun
“Advantages and Limitation”, particularly with strongly pinning 2014;5:5254.
nanomaterials, offer promising research directions. [27] Park J, Moon J, Shin H, Wang D, Park M. Direct-write fabrication of col-
loidal photonic crystal microarrays by ink-jet printing. Colloid Interf. Sci.
On the other hand, CRE inspired approaches can be utilized to 2006;298:713–9.
improve biochemical analyses and prepare new materials through [28] Cui L, Li Y, Wang J, Tian E, Zhang X, Zhang Y. et al. Fabrication of large-area
convection induced assembly. In biochemical analyses, CRE enables patterned photonic crystals by ink-jet printing. J Mater Chem 2009;19:
5499–502.
concentration of analytes by making use of contact line pinning and
[29] Parisse F, Allain C. Shape changes of colloidal suspension droplets during
capillary flows. Similarly, ordered colloidal structures can be con- drying. J Phys 1996;II(6):1111–9.
structed through convection induced self-assembly at the contact [30] Parisse F, Allain C. Drying of colloidal suspension droplets: experimental study
and profile renormalization. Langmuir 1997;13:3598–602.
line. We have described existing challenges and suggested possible
[31] Deegan R, Bakajin O, Dupont TF, Huber G, Nagel SR, Witten TA. Contact line
directions for future research at the end of each sections. deposits in an evaporating drop. Phys Rev E 2000;62:756.
[32] Marín AG, Gelderblom H, Lohse D, Snoeijer JH. Order-to-disorder transition in
ring-shaped colloidal stains. Phys Rev Lett 2011;107:085502.
Acknowledgments [33] Das S, Chakraborty S, Mitra SK. Ring stains in the presence of electrokinetic
interactions. Phys Rev E 2012;85:046311.
The authors acknowledges Dr. Sajan Daniel George and Eric Reza [34] Davis SH. Thermocapillary instabilities. Annu Rev Fluid Mech 1987;19:403.
[35] Ristenpart WD, Kim PG, Domingues C, Wan J, Stone HA. Influence of sub-
Safai for valuable comments. DM acknowledges SERB (India) grant
strate conductivity on circulation reversal in evaporating drops. Phys Rev Lett
(30216008) and HBE acknowledges Veni grant from NWO. 2007;99:234502.
[36] Bhardwaj R, Fang X, Somasundaran P, Attinger D. Self-assembly of colloidal par-
ticles from evaporating droplets: role of DLVO interactions and proposition of
a phase diagram. Langmuir 2010;26:7833–42.
References [37] Yunker PJ, Lohr MA, Still T, Borodin A, Durian DJ, Yodh AG. Effects of par-
ticle shape on growth dynamics at edges of evaporating drops of colloidal
[1] Larson RG. Re-shaping the coffee ring. Angew Chem 2012;51:2546–8. suspensions. Phys Rev Lett 2013;110:035501.
[2] Larson RG. Transport and deposition patterns in drying sessile droplets. AIChE [38] Sacanna S, Pine DJ, Yi GR. Engineering shape: the novel geometries of colloidal
J 2014;60:1538–71. self-assembly. Soft Matter 2013;9:8096–106.
[3] Ma H, Hao J. Ordered patterns superlattices, honeycomb structures and coffee [39] Weon BM, Je JH. Capillary force repels coffee-ring effect. Phys Rev E
rings. Chem Soc Rev 2011;40:5457–71. 2010;82:015305(R).
[4] Deegan RD, Bakajin O, Dupont TF, Huber G, Nagel SR, Witten TA. Capillary flow [40] Manoharan VN, Elsesser MT, Pine DJ. Dense packing and symmetry in small
as the cause of ring stains from dried liquid drops. Nature 1997;389:827–9. clusters of microspheres. Science 2003;301:483–7.
[5] Hu H, Larson RG. Evaporation of a sessile droplet on a substrate. J Phys Chem B [41] Lauga E, Brenner MP. Evaporation-driven assembly of colloidal particles. Phys
2002;106:1334–44. Rev Lett 2004;93:238301.
[6] Park J, Moon J. Control of colloidal particle deposit patterns within picoliter [42] Popov YO. Evaporative deposition patterns spatial dimensions of the deposit.
droplets ejected by ink-jet printing. Langmuir 2006;22:3506–13. Phys Rev E 2005;71:036313.
[43] Craster RV, Matar OK, Sefiane K. Pinning, retraction, and terracing of evaporat- [81] Muangnapoh T, Weldon AL, Gilchrist JF. Enhanced colloidal monolayer assem-
ing droplets containing nanoparticles. Langmuir 2009;25:3601–9. bly via vibration-assisted convective deposition. Appl Phys Lett 2013;103:
[44] Witten TA. Robust fadeout profile of an evaporation stain. Europhys Lett 181603.
2009;86: [82] Zabihi F, Eslamian M. Substrate vibration-assisted spray coating (SVASC):
[45] Freed-Brown J. Evaporative deposition in receding drops. Soft Matter significant improvement in nano-structure, uniformity, and conductivity
2014;10:9506–10. of PEDOT:PSS thin films for organic solar cells. J Coat Technol Res 2015;12:
[46] Man X, Doi M. Ring to mountain transition in deposition pattern of drying 711–9.
droplets. Phys Rev Lett 2016;116:066101. [83] Yeo LY, Friend JR. Surface acoustic wave microfluidics annu. Rev Fluid Mech
[47] Fischer BJ. Particle convection in an evaporating colloidal droplet. Langmuir 2014;46:379–406.
2002;18:60–7. [84] Mampallil D, Reboud J, Wilson R, Wylie D, Klug DR, Cooper JM. Acoustic
[48] Ozawa K, Nishitani E, Doi M. Modeling of the drying process of liquid droplet to suppression of the coffee-ring effect. Soft Matter 2015;11:7207–13.
form thin film. Jpn JAppl Phys 2005;44:4229. [85] Mhatre S, Zigelman A, Abezgauz L, Manor O. Influence of a propagating
[49] Okuzono T, Kobayashi M, Doi M. Final shape of a drying thin film. Phys Rev E megahertz surface acoustic wave on the pattern deposition of solute mass off
2009;80:021603. an evaporating solution Langmuir, DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b01341.
[50] Eales AD, Routh AF, Dartnell N, Goddard S. Evaporation of pinned droplets con- [86] Mampallil D, Reboud J, Wilson R, Cooper JM. 18Th international conference on
taining polymer — an examination of the important groups controlling final miniaturized systems for chemistry and life sciences.2014.San Antonio, Texas,
shape. Transp Phenom Fluid Mech 2015;61:1759–67. USA. p1193 October 26-30.
[51] Eales AD, Dartnell N, Goddard S, Routh AF. The impact of trough geometry [87] Nguyen VX, Stebe KJ. Patterning of small particles by a surfactant-enhanced
on film shape. A theoretical study of droplets containing polymer, for p-OLED Marangoni-Bénard instability. Phys Rev Lett 2002;88:164501-4.
display applications. J Colloid Interface Sci 2015;458:53–61. [88] Hu H, Larson RG. Analysis of the effects of Marangoni stresses on the microflow
[52] Karapetsas G, Sahu KC, Matar OK. Evaporation of sessile droplets laden with in an evaporating sessile droplet. Langmuir 2005;21:3972–80.
particles and insoluble surfactants. Langmuir 2016;32:6871–81. [89] Deegan RD. Pattern formation in drying drops. Phys Rev E 2000;61:475.
[53] Frastia L, Archer AJ, Thiele U. Dynamical model for the formation of patterned [90] Hu H, Larson RG. Marangoni effect reverses coffee-ring depositions. J Phys
deposits at receding contact lines. Phys Rev Lett 2011;106:077801. Chem B 2006;110:7090–4.
[54] Fraštia L, Archer AJ, Thiele U. Modelling the formation of structured deposits [91] Hendarto E, Gianchandani YB. Size sorting of floating spheres based
at receding contact lines of evaporating solutions and suspensions. Soft Matter on Marangoni forces in evaporating droplets. J Micromech Microeng
2012;8:11363–86. 2013;23:075016.
[55] Kaplan C, Mahadevan L. Evaporation-driven ring and film deposition from [92] Li Y, Lv C, Li Z, Quéré D, Zheng Q. From coffee rings to coffee eyes. Soft Matter
colloidal droplets. J of Fluid Mech 2015;781:R2. 2015;11:4669–73.
[56] Shen X, Ho CM, Wong TS. Minimal size of coffee ring structure. J Phys Chem B [93] Parsa M, Harmand S, Sefiane K, Bigerelle M, Deltombe R. Effect of substrate tem-
2010;114:5269–74. perature on pattern formation of nanoparticles from volatile drops. Langmuir
[57] De Gennes, Wetting PG. Statics and dynamics. Rev Mod Phys 1985;57: 2015;31:3354–67.
827–63. [94] Ta VD, Carter RM, Esenturk E, Connaughton C, Wasley TJ, Li J. et al. Dynamically
[58] Bonn D, Eggers J, Indekeu J, Meunier J, Rolley E. Wetting and spreading. Rev controlled deposition of colloidal nanoparticle suspension in evaporating drops
Modern Phys 2009;81:739–804. using laser radiation. Soft Matter 2016;12:4530–6.
[59] Eral HB, ’t Mannetje DJCM, Oh JM. Contact angle hysteresis: a review of [95] Lim JA, Lee WH, Lee HS, Lee JH, Park YD, Cho K. Self-organization of ink–
fundamentals and applications. Colloid Polym Sci 2013;291:247–60. jet-printed triisopropylsilylethynyl pentacene via evaporation-induced flows
[60] Anyfantakis M, Baigl D. Manipulating the coffee-ring effect: interactions at in a drying droplet. Adv Funct Mater 2008;18:229–34.
work. ChemPhysChem 2015;16:2726–34. [96] Talbot EL, Berson A, Bain CD. NIP28: 28th international conference on digital
[61] Ko HY, Park J, Shin H, Moon J. Rapid self-assembly of monodisperse colloidal printing technologies and digital fabrication, Quebec City, Canada. The Society
spheres in an ink-Jet printed droplet. Chem Mater 2004;16:4212–5. for Imaging Science and Technology: Springfield, VA.; 2012,420–3.
[62] Tian D, Song Y, Jiang L. Patterning of controllable surface wettability for printing [97] Seo C, Jang D, Chae J, Shin S. Altering the coffee-ring effect by adding a
techniques. Chem Soc Rev 2013;42:5184–209. surfactant-like viscous polymer solution. Sci Rep 2017;7:
[63] Semprebon C, McHale G, Kusumaatmaja H. Re-shaping the coffee ring. Soft [98] Zhong X, Duan F. Flow regime and deposition pattern of evaporating binary
matter 2017;13,1:101–10. mixture droplet suspended with particles. Eur Phys J E 2016;39:18.
[64] Chen L, Evans JR. Drying of colloidal droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces. J [99] Jin H, Qian J, Zhou L, Yuan J, Huang H, Wang Y. et al. Suppressing the coffee-ring
Colloid Interface Sci 2010;351:283–7. effect in semitransparent MnO2 film for a high-performance solar-powered
[65] Brunet P. Particle deposition after droplet evaporation on ultra-hydrophobic energy storage window. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2016;8:9088–96.
micro-textured surfaces. Soft Matter 2012;8:11294–301. [100] Still T, Yunker PJ, Yodh AG. Surfactant-induced marazngoni eddies alter the
[66] Ta VD, Dunn A, Wasley TJ, Li J, Kay RW, Stringer J. et al. Laser textured super- coffee-rings of evaporating colloidal drops. Langmuir 2012;28:4984–8.
hydrophobic surfaces and their applications for homogeneous spot deposition. [101] Erbil HY. Control of stain geometry by drop evaporation of surfactant contain-
Appl Surf Sci 2016;365:153–9. ing dispersions. Adv Colloid Interf Sci 2015;222:275–90.
[67] Marín AG, Gelderblom H, Susarrey-Arce A, van Houselt A, Lefferts L, Garde- [102] Sempels W, Dier RD, Mizuno H, Hofkens J, Vermant J. Auto-production of bio-
niers JG. et al. Building microscopic soccer balls with evaporating colloidal fakir surfactants reverses the coffee ring effect in a bacterial system. Nat Commun
drops. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012;109:16455–8. 2013;4:1757.
[68] Dicuangco M, Dash S, Weibel JA, Garimella SV. Effect of superhydropho- [103] Marin A, Liepelt R, Rossi M, Kähler CJ. Surfactant-driven flow transitions in
bic surface morphology on evaporative deposition patterns. Appl Phys Lett evaporating droplets. Soft Matter 2016;12:1593–600.
2014;104:201604. [104] Michen B, Geers C, Vanhecke D, Endes C, Rothen-Rutishauser B, Balog S. et al.
[69] Semprebon C, Forsberg P, Priest C, Brinkmann M. Pinning and wicking in Avoiding drying-artifacts in transmission electron microscopy: characterizing
regular pillar arrays. Soft Matter 2014;10:5739. the size and colloidal state of nanoparticles. Sci Rep 2015;5:9793.
[70] Cui L, Zhang J, Zhang X, Li Y, Wang Z, Gao H. et al. Avoiding coffee ring structure [105] Majumder M, Rendall CS, Eukel JA, Wang JYL, Behabtu N, Pint CL. et al. Over-
based on hydrophobic silicon pillar arrays during single-drop evaporation. Soft coming the “coffee-stain” effect by compositional Marangoni-flow-assisted
Matter 2012;8:10448–56. drop-drying. J Phys Chem B 2012;116:6536.
[71] Dai X, Stogin BB, Yang S, Wong TS. Slippery Wenzel state. ACS Nano [106] Crivoi A, Duan F. Attenuating the coffee-ring effect in drying sessile nanofluid
2015;9:9260–7. droplets. Phys Rev Amplif. E 2013;87:042303.
[72] Moraila-Martinez CL, Cabrerizo-Vilchez MA, Rodriguez-Valverde MA. Control- [107] Crivoi A, Duan F. Elimination of the coffee-ring effect by promoting particle
ling the morphology of ring-like deposits by varying the pinning time of driven adsorption and long-range interaction. Langmuir 2013;29:12067–74.
receding contact lines. Interfacial Phenom Heat Transfer 2013;1:195–205. [108] Crivoi A, Zhong X, Duan F. Crossover from the coffee-ring effect to the uni-
[73] Nguyen TAH, Hampton MA, Nguyen AV. Evaporation of nanoparticle droplets form deposit caused by irreversible cluster-cluster aggregation. Phys Rev E
on smooth hydrophobic surfaces: the inner coffee ring deposits. J Phys Chem C 2015;92:032302.
2013;117:4707–16. [109] Dugyala VR, Basavaraj MG. Control over coffee-ring formation in evaporating
[74] Li F, Sheng YJ, Tsao HK. Evaporation stains. Langmuir 2013;29:7802–11. liquid drops containing ellipsoids. Langmuir 2014;30:8680–6.
[75] Mugele F, Baret JC. Electrowetting: from basics to applications. J Phys Condens [110] Choi S, Pisano AP, Zohdi TI. An analysis of evaporative self-assembly of
Matter 2005;17:R705. micro particles in printed picoliter suspension droplets. Thin Solid Films
[76] Li F, Mugele F. How to make sticky surfaces slippery: contact angle hysteresis 2013;537:180–9.
in electrowetting with alternating voltage. Appl Phys Lett 2008;92:244108. [111] Dugyala VR, Basavaraj MG. Evaporation of sessile drops containing
[77] Eral HB, Augustine DM, Duits MHG, Mugele F. Suppressing the coffee stain colloidal rods: coffee-ring and order-disorder transition. J Phys Chem B
effect: how to control colloidal self-assembly in evaporating drops using 2015;119:3860–7.
electrowetting. Soft Matter 2011;7:4954–8. [112] Fleury B, Dantelle G, Darbe S, Boilot JP, Gacoin T. Transparent coatings made
[78] Wray AW, Papageorgiou DT, Craster RV, Sefiane K, Matar OK. Electrostatic from spray deposited colloidal suspensions. Langmuir 2012;28:7639–45.
suppression of the “coffee stain effect”. Langmuir 2014;30:5849–58. [113] Tang Y, He W, Wang S, Tao Z, Cheng L. The superiority of silver nanoellipsoids
[79] Zhang J, Borg MK, Ritos K, Reese JM. Electrowetting controls the deposit synthesized via a new approach in suppressing the coffee-ring effect during
patterns of evaporated salt water nanodroplets. Langmuir 2016;32:1542–9. drying and film formation processes. Nanotechnology 2014;25:125602.
[80] Kim SJ, Kang KH, Lee JG, Kang IS, Yoon BJ. Control of particle-deposition [114] Sun P, Ma R, Wang K, Zhong M, Wei J, Wu D. Suppression of the coffee-ring
pattern in a sessile droplet by using radial electroosmotic flow. Anal Chem effect by self-assembling graphene oxide and monolayer titania. Nanotechnol-
2006;78:5192–7. ogy 2013;24:075601.
[115] Morales VL, Parlange JY, Wu M, Pérez-Reche FJ, Zhang W, Sang W. [148] Liu Y, Huang CZ, Li YF. Fluorescence assay based on preconcentration by a self-
Surfactant-mediated control of colloid pattern assembly and attachment ordered ring using berberine as a model analyte. Anal Chem 2002;74:5564–8.
strength in evaporating droplets. Langmuir 2013;29:1831–40. [149] Huang CZ, Liu Y, Li YF. Microscopic determination of tetracycline based on
[116] Stamou D, Duschl C, Johannsmann D. Long-range attraction between colloidal aluminum-sensitized fluorescence of a self-ordered ring formed by a sessile
spheres at the air-water interface: the consequence of an irregular meniscus. droplet on glass slide support. J Pharm Biomed Anal 2004;34:103–14.
Phys Rev E 2000;62:5263. [150] Yang C, Huang C. Fluorescent microscopic determination of quinidine sulfate in
[117] Dasgupta S, Katava M, Faraj M, Auth T, Gompper G. Capillary assembly of serum samples with self-ordered ring technique by capillary flow effect. Chin J
microscale ellipsoidal, cuboidal, and spherical particles at interfaces. Langmuir Anal Chem 2006;34:183–7.
2014;30:11873–82. [151] Liu Y, Li YF, Huang CZ. Fluorimetric determination of fluorescein at the femto-
[118] Yunker PJ, Still T, Lohr MA, Yodh AG. Suppression of the coffee-ring effect by mole level with a self-ordered ring of a sessile droplet on glass slide support. J
shape-dependent capillary interactions. Nature 2011;476:308–11. Anal Chem 2006;61:647–53.
[119] Léandri J, Würger A. Trapping energy of a spherical particle on a curved liquid [152] Trantum JR, Wright DW, Haselton FR. Biomarker-mediated disruption of
interface. J Colloid Interface Sci 2013;405:249–55. coffee-ring formation as a low resource diagnostic indicator. Langmuir
[120] Yan Q, Gao L, Sharma V, Chiang YM, Wong CC. Particle and substrate 2012;28:2187–93.
charge effects on colloidal self-assembly in a sessile drop. Langmuir [153] Filik J, Stone N. Drop coating deposition Raman spectroscopy of protein mix-
2008;24:11518–22. tures. Analyst 2007;132:544–50.
[121] Anyfantakis M, Geng Z, Morel M, Rudiuk S, Baigl D. Modulation of the cof- [154] Zhang D, Xie Y, Mrozek MF, Ortiz C, Davisson VJ, Ben-Amotz D. Raman detection
fee-ring effect in particle/surfactant mixtures: the importance of particle-in- of proteomic analytes. Anal Chem 2003;75:5703–9.
terface interactions. Langmuir 2015;31:4113–20. [155] Ortiz C, Zhang D, Xie Y, Ribbe AE, Ben-Amotz D. Validation of the
[122] Horigome K, Suzuki D. Drying mechanism of poly(n-isopropylacrylamide) drop coating deposition Raman method for protein analysis. Anal Biochem
microgel dispersions. Langmuir 2012;28:12962–70. 2006;353:157–66.
[123] Still T, Yunker PJ, Hanson K, Davidson ZS, Lohr MA, Aptowicz KB. et al. Hydro- [156] Halvorson RA, Leng W, Vikesland PJ. Differentiation of microcystin, nodu-
gels: temperature-sensitive hydrogel-particle films from evaporating drops. larin, and their component amino acids by drop-coating deposition raman
Adv Mater Interfaces 2015;2. https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201570078. spectroscopy. Anal Chem 2011;83:9273–80.
[124] Zhang J, Pelton R. Poly(n-isopropylacrylamide) microgels at the air-water [157] Pan X, Dong J, Li Y, Sun X, Yuan C, Qian W. The strategy of two-scale interface
interface. Langmuir 1999;15:8032–6. enrichment for constructing ultrasensitive SERS substrates based on the coffee
[125] Anyfantakis M, Baigl D. Dynamic photocontrol of the coffee-ring effect ring effect of agNP@b-CD. RSC Adv 2016;6:29586–91.
with optically tunable particle stickiness. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl [158] Xu J, Du J, Jing C, Zhang Y, Cui J. Facile detection of polycyclic aromatic hydro-
2014;53:14077–81. carbons by a surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensor based on the Au coffee
[126] Bigioni TP, Lin XM, Nguyen TT, Corwin EI, Witten TA, Jaeger HM. Kinetically ring effect. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2014;6:6891–7.
driven self assembly of highly ordered nanoparticle monolayers. Nat Mater [159] Barman I, Dingari NC, Kang JW, Horowitz GL, Dasari RR, Feld MS. Raman spec-
2006;5:265–70. troscopy-based sensitive and specific detection of glycated hemoglobin. Anal
[127] Li Y, Yang Q, Li M, Song Y. Rate-dependent interface capture beyond the Chem 2012;84:2474–82.
coffee-ring effect. Sci Rep 2016;6:24628. [160] Attinger D, Moore C, Donaldson A, Jafari A, Stone HA. Fluid dynamics topics in
[128] Talbot EL, Yang L, Berson A, Bain CD. Control of the particle distribution in inkjet bloodstain pattern analysis: comparative review and research opportunities.
printing through an evaporation-driven sol-gel transition. ACS Appl Mater Forensic Sci Int 2013;231:375–96.
Interfaces 2014;6:9572–83. [161] Bolen HL. The blood pattern as a clue to the diagnosis of malignant disease. J
[129] Talbot EL, Yow HN, Yang L, Berson A, Biggs SR, Bain CD. Printing small dots from Lab Clin Med 1942;27:1522–36.
large drops. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2015;7:3782–90. [162] Bolen HL. Review of experience with the blood pattern test from 1939 to 1953.
[130] Kajiya T, Kobayashi W, Okuzono T, Doi M. Controlling the drying and film for- Am J Surg 1954;87:205–10.
mation processes of polymer solution droplets with addition of small amount [163] Chen R, Zhang L, Zang D, Shen W. Adv Colloid Interf Sci 2016;231:1–14.
of surfactants. J Phys Chem B 2009;113:15460–6. [164] Devineau S, Anyfantakis M, Marichal L, Kiger L, Morel M, Rudiuk S. et al.
[131] Cui L, Zhang J, Zhang X, Huang L, Wang Z, Li Y. et al. Suppression of the cof- Protein adsorption and reorganization on nanoparticles probed by the cof-
fee ring effect by hydrosoluble polymer additives. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces fee-ring effect: application to single point mutation detection. J Am Chem Soc
2012;4:2775–80. 2016;138:11623–32.
[132] Msambwa Y, Shackleford ASD, Ouali FF, Fairhursta DJ. Controlling and charac- [165] Li Y, Zhao Z, Lam ML, Liu W, Yeung PP, Chieng CC. et al. Hybridization-induced
terising the deposits from polymer droplets containing microparticles and salt. suppression of coffee ring effect for nucleic acid detection. Sens Actuators B
Eur Phys J E 2016;39:21. Chem 2015;206:56–64.
[133] Cui LY, Yan Y, Zhao XY, Yu CL, Ma Y, Yang B. et al. Controlling coffee ring [166] Trantum jR, Baglia ML, Eagleton ZE, Mernaugh RL, Haselton FR. Biosen-
structure on hydrophobic polymer surface by manipulating wettability with O2 sor design based on Marangoni flow in an evaporating drop. Lab Chip
plasma. Chin Chem Lett 2016; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cclet.2016.07.028. 2014;14:315–24.
[134] Biswas N, Datta A. Coffee-ring patterns of polymer droplets. AIP Conf Proc [167] Jeong H, van Tiem J, Gianchandani YB, Park J. Nanoparticle separation using
2013;1512:142. Marangoni flow in evaporating droplets. South Carolina: Hilton Head Island;
[135] Wang L, Wang J, Huang Y, Liu M, Kuang M, Li Y. Inkjet Printed colloidal pho- 2014.
tonic crystal microdot with fast response induced by hydrophobic transition of [168] Yadav R, Balasubramanian K, Wang X. Encapsulation of gold nanoparticles with
poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide). J Mater Chem 2012;22:21405. PHB based on coffee ring effect. RSC Adv 2015;5:18501.
[136] van den Berg AMJ, de Laat AW, Smith PJ, Perelaer J, Schubert US. Geomet- [169] Norris DJ, Arlinghaus EG, Meng L, Heiny R, Scriven LE. Opaline photonic
ric control of inkjet printed features using a gelating polymer. J Mater Chem crystals: how does self-assembly work? Adv Mater 2004;16:1393–9.
2007;17:677–83. [170] Zhang J, Sun Z, Yang B. Self-assembly of Photonic Crystals from polymer
[137] Soltman D, Subramanian V. Inkjet-printed line morphologies and temperature colloids. Curr Opin Colloid Interface Sci 2009;14:103–14.
control of the coffee ring effect. Langmuir 2008;24:2224–31. [171] Choi S, Stassi S, Pisano AP, Zohdi TI. Coffee-ring effect-based three dimensional
[138] Gorr HM, Zueger JM, Barnard JA. Lysozyme pattern formation in evaporating patterning of micro/nanoparticle assembly with a single droplet. Langmuir
drops. Langmuir 2012;28:4039–42. 2010;26:11690–8.
[139] Pack M, Hu H, Kim DO, Yang X, Sun Y. Colloidal drop deposition on porous [172] Malfatti L, Tokudome Y, Okada K, Yagi S, Takahashi M, Innocenzi P. Coffee stain–
substrates: competition among particle motion, evaporation, and infiltration. driven self-assembly of mesoporous rings. Microporous Mesoporous Mater
Langmuir 2015;31:7953–61. 2012;163:356–62.
[140] Nilghaz A, Zhang L, Shen W. Coffee stains on paper. Chem Eng Sci [173] Mu J, Lin P, Xia Q. Concentric rings of polystyrene and titanium dioxide
2015;129:34–41. nanoparticles patterned by alternating current signal guided coffee ring effect.
[141] Kajiya T, Kobayashi W, Okuzono T, Doi M. Controlling profiles of poly- Appl Phys Lett 2014;104:261601.
mer dots by switching between evaporation and condensation. Langmuir [174] Li Y, Lan L, Xiao P, Sun S, Lin Z, Song W. et al. Coffee-Ring defined short channels
2010;26:10429–32. for inkjet-printed metal oxide thin-film transistors. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
[142] Eales AD, Routh AF. Elimination of coffee-ring formation by humidity cycling: 2016;8:19643–8.
a numerical study. Langmuir 2016;32:505–11. [175] Zhang Z, Zhang X, Xin Z, Deng M, Wen Y, Song Y. Controlled inkjetting of a
[143] Schirmer NC, Ströhle S, Tiwari MK, Poulikakos D. On the principles of printing conductive pattern of silver nanoparticles based on the coffee-ring effect. Adv
sub-micrometer 3D structures from dielectric-liquid-based colloids. Adv Funct Mater 2013;25:6714–8.
Mater 2011;21:388–95. [176] Zhang Z, Zhu W. Controllable fabrication of a flexible transparent metallic grid
[144] Du X, Deegan RD. Ring formation on an inclined surface. J Fluid Mech conductor based on the coffee ring effect. J Mater Chem C 2014;2:9587–91.
2015;775:R3. [177] Bromberg V, Ma S, Singler TJ. High-resolution inkjet printing of electrically con-
[145] Zhou W, Hu A, Bai S, Ma Y, Bridges D. Anisotropic optical properties of large-s- ducting lines of silver nanoparticles by edge-enhanced twin-line deposition.
cale aligned silver nanowire films via controlled coffee ring effects. RSC Adv Appl Phys Lett 2013;102:214101.
2015;5:39103–9. [178] Ma S, Liu L, Bromberg V, Singler TJ. Fabrication of highly electrically conduct-
[146] Hernandez-Perez R, Fan ZH, Garcia-Cordero JL. Evaporation-driven bioassays in ing fine patterns via substrate-independent inkjet printing of mussel-inspired
suspended droplets. Anal Chem 2016;88:7312–7. organic nano-material. J Mater Chem C 2014;2:3885–9.
[147] Angelis FD, Gentile F, Mecarini F, Das G, Moretti M, Candeloro P. et al. Breaking [179] Layani M, Gruchko M, Milo O, Balberg I, Azulay D, Magdassi S. Transparent con-
the diffusion limit with super-hydrophobic delivery of molecules to plasmonic ductive coatings by printing coffee ring arrays obtained at room temperature.
nanofocusing SERS structures. Nat Photonics 2011;5:682–7. ACS Nano 2009;3:3537–42.
[180] Dinh NT, Sowade E, Blaudeck T, Hermann S, Rodriguez RD, Zahn DRT. et [184] Sun W, Yang F. Evaporation-induced formation of self-organized gradient con-
al. High-resolution inkjet printing of conductive carbon nanotube twin lines centric rings on sub-micron pre-cast PMMA films. Soft Matter 2014;10:4451.
utilizing evaporation-driven self-assembly. Carbon 2016;96:382–93. [185] Lin ZQ, Granick S. Patterns formed by droplet evaporation from a restricted
[181] Khapli S, Rianasari I, Sharma S, Blanton T. Jagannathan, R. Fabrication of hierar- geometry. J Am Chem Soc 2005;127:2816.
chically structured porous films of metal oxides and carbonates through coffee [186] Hong SW, Xu J, Xia J, Lin Z, Qiu F, Yang Y. Drying mediated pattern formation in
ring effect. Mater Today Proc 2016;3:362–8. a capillary-held organometallic polymer solution. Chem Mater 2005;17:6223.
[182] Khapli S, Rianasari I, Blanton T, Weston J, Gilardetti R, Neiva R. et al. Fabrication [187] Xu J, Xia J, Hong SW, Lin Z, Qiu F, 2 Yang Y. Self-assembly of gradient con-
of hierarchically porous materials and nanowires through coffee ring effect. centric rings via solvent evaporation from a capillary bridge. Phys Rev Lett
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2014;6:20643–53. 2006;96:066104.
[183] Chung S, Karim MHU, Spencer M, Kwon HJ, Grigoropoulos CP, Alon E. et
al. Exploitation of the coffee-ring effect to realize mechanically enhanced
inkjet-printed microelectromechanical relays with U-bar-shaped cantilevers.
Appl Phys Lett 2014;105:261901.

Mam Pal Lil 2018

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Mam Pal Lil 2018

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Mam Pal Lil 2018

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Delft University of Technology

A review on suppression and utilization of the coffee-ring effect

Mampallil, Dileep; Eral, Huseyin Burak

This work is downloaded from Delft University of Technology.

'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project

Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Advances in Colloid and Interface Science

A review on suppression and utilization of the coffee-ring effect

You might also like