Drying enhancement in phase separating fluids and its application

在非混相聚合物共混物在共同溶剂中的薄膜干燥过程中，在一定的溶剂浓度范围内，自发的聚合物相分离促进了溶剂干燥的增强或抑制。干燥过程中同时进行的质量/荧光强度测量表明，当相分离畴的生长速率低于20 nm/s的临界值时，干燥增强发生。在干燥增强模式下，荧光显微镜还显示了聚合物畴界面处的局部溶剂富集。这些事实表明，溶剂分子在相分离畴界面上的自组装导致溶剂沿界面形成扩散路径，这有助于溶剂在液膜上的干燥。

In thin film drying process of immiscible polymer blend in a common solvent, spontaneous polymer phase separation promotes the enhancement or suppression of solvent drying in a particular range of solvent concentrations. Simultaneous mass/fluorescent intensity measurements in the course of drying revealed that the drying enhancement takes place in the case when growth rates of phase-separated domains are lower than the critical value of 20 nm/s. The fluorescent microscopy also showed the local solvent enrichment at the interface of polymer domains in drying enhancement mode. These fact imply that the self-assembly of solvent molecules at phase-separating domain interfaces results in formation of solvent diffusion path along the interface, which assists the solvent drying across the liquid film.