| Summary: | We investigate the structure of stains formed through evaporative deposition in sessile drops. Commonly, the deposited stain has a high surface density near the three phase contact line of the drying drop and much less solute in the bulk of the drop. This is known as the ``coffee ring effect'' and primarily arises due to contact line pinning. While many features of the stain depend on subtle physical phenomena within the drop, the coffee ring effect stands out as a robust feature that persists in many varied experimental realizations. In 2009, Witten predicted another robust feature of deposited stains: an asymptotic regime where a robust power law governs the fadeout profile of the stain into the interior of the drop. This power law is only controlled by geometric properties at a single point and the power does not vary along the contact line. We investigate the approach to this power law using numerical methods. For many evaporation profiles (including common experimental ones) the numerics show good agreement with the power law prediction. However, we demonstrate an intuitive scheme to construct evaporation profiles that subvert the power law prediction. We find that, in general, the approach to the power law cannot be known without full knowledge of the evaporation and height profile.
We also extend this work in another way. We apply the basic arguments of the coffee ring effect to the case where the drop has a receding contact line. Here, we develop a new theoretical framework for deposition that has not previously been studied. In this context, the surface density profile can be directly calculated. Unlike a pinned contact line, receding contact lines push fluid into the interior of the drop. This effect can be overcome by strong evaporation near the contact line, but in general the intuition from contact line pinning is reversed. Following Witten's example, we find that the surface density of the stain near the center of the drop goes as eta ∝ rnu, where nu is a geometric property determined by the evaporation and height at the stagnation point. We demonstrate analytic and numeric calculations within this new framework and find novel stain morphologies that resemble recent experiments.
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