Evaporation-driven self-assembly of particle-laden droplets offers a powerful platform for probing coupled heat, mass, and momentum transport, while enabling the fabrication of structured soft materials. In this seminar, we examine the drying dynamics of droplets containing soft microgel particles and the mechanisms governing their final deposition patterns. Interfacial adsorption plays a central role, as deformable microgels preferentially accumulate at the liquid–air interface, modifying interfacial rheology and transport processes during evaporation. This behavior promotes suppression of the classical coffee-ring effect, leading to more uniform particle deposition and controlled structural organization. We discuss how the interplay between evaporation rate and particle softness dictates the resulting microstructures. Finally, we present emerging pattern formation in microgel suspensions dried under parallel-plate confinement. These findings provide new insights into controlling deposition patterns for applications in coatings, printing, and advanced material design.
References:
1. Sanjib Majumder, Madivala G. Basavaraj, Dillip K. Satapathy. Soft colloidal monolayer with reflection symmetry through confined drying, Nanoscale Advances 6, 4907-4921, (2024)
2. M Jose, M Mayarani, Madivala G. Basavaraj, Dillip K. Satapathy. Evaporative self-assembly of binary mixture of soft colloids. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 23 (12), 7115-7124 (2021).
3. M. Mayarani, Madivala G. Basavaraj, Dillip K. Satapathy. Colloidal monolayers with cell-like tessellations via interface assisted evaporative assembly. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 583, 683-691 (2021).
4. M. Mayarani, Madivala G. Basavaraj, Dillip K. Satapathy. Loosely Packed Monolayer Coffee Stains in Dried Drops of Soft Colloids. Nanoscale, 9, 18798-18803 (2017).
Bio: Madivala G. Basavaraj is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He received his Ph.D. from KU Leuven, Belgium. Following postdoctoral research at the University of Delaware, he joined IIT Madras in 2011. His research interests are in the area of experimental soft matter. His group focuses on the study of particle-laden interfaces, colloidal self-assembly, Pickering emulsions, spreading and wetting, interfacial catalysis, the development of porous materials, and the application of colloids and interface principles in food and agricultural technology.