The Spreading of Inkjet-Printed Droplets with Varying Polymer Molar Mass on a dry Solid Substrate

Perelaer, Jolke; Smith, Patrick J.; van den Bosch, Erwin; van Grootel, Stephen S. C.; Ketelaars, Peter H. J. M.; Schubert, Ulrich S.

Abstract:

An experimental study on the spreading of inkjet printed droplets of a polystyrene/toluene solution with varied molar masses on solid dry surfaces is presented. The polymer’s numberaveraged molar mass was varied between 1.5 and 545 kDa, which also caused a variation in the viscosity from 0.6 to 1.7 mPa
s. The results were compared with theoretical models for droplet spreading and were found to fit with an error between 2 and 20% with the predictions. Furthermore, the in-flight evaporation of the free-falling droplet was investigated for polystyrene/toluene solutions that have a constant vapor pressure by printing from a systematically increased height.

Year:

2009

Type of Publication:

Article

Journal:

Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics

Volume:

210

Pages:

495 - 502