A talk by Clare Rees-Zimmerman, organised by the Early Career Mathematicians’ Committee
Abstract
A variety of particle arrangements are observed in dried films, raising the questions: (1) why, and (2) can we control this? The motivation is to be able to design coating formulations which self-assemble during drying to give a desired structure. Potential applications are across a range of industries, from a self-layering car paint, to a biocidal coating in which the biocide stratifies to the top surface, where it is required. This talk explores the relative importance of diffusion, phoretic motion and charge interactions: through scaling, modelling and experiment. A continuum hydrodynamic model of the system is developed, the resulting partial differential equations solved numerically using a finite volume method, and asymptotically in the fast evaporation regime. An experiment set up in a Hele-Shaw cell – parallel plates separated by a narrow gap used for studying laminar flow – suggests an overlooked mechanism to control the particle motion.
Info
Clare started as a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church, University of Oxford, in October 2022, kindly hosted by the Oxford Colloid Group, and she is the winner of the 2023 IMA Lighthill-Thwaites Prize: https://ima.org.uk/22113/controlling-how-paint-dries/
Clare is a chemical engineer by training, having completed her undergraduate (integrated Masters) and PhD degrees at the University of Cambridge. She also undertook a number of industrial summer internships, including in R&D at Procter & Gamble. Her research interests include thin film materials, diffusiophoretic motion, and multiphase flow. She is currently working on measuring interparticle interactions.
This event is hosted by our Early Career Mathematicians’ committee.
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Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash.
