Simulating fluid flow in lithographically directed, evaporation driven self-assembly systems

A modeling methodology based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been developed for predicting the bulk particle transport that occurs during evaporation driven self-assembly. The governing partial differential equations are solved over a computational domain defined by a deforming control volume. The deformation of the control volume is linked to a flux of the bulk liquid in order to simulate the flow field created by evaporation. The CFD predictions are compared with experimental measurements of the particle distribution obtained by optically imaging fluorescing nanoparticles within an evaporating, pinned colloidal droplet. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.