Interplay of Binary Solvent-Driven Flows and Solvent-Dependent Polymer Phase Behavior in Drying Colloidal Droplets.
The drying behavior of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-grafted silica (SiO2-PNIPAM) particle suspensions in binary ethanol/water (EtOH/H2O) mixtures was investigated as a function of solvent composition and temperature. In pure H2O, the particles undergo a hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic transition near the lower critical solut...