Cryogenic Scanning Electron Microscopy of Early Stages of Film Formation in Drying Latex Coatings

Opaline Photonic Crystals: How Does Self‐Assembly Work?

“…[87,88] Because these spheres redisperse if the solvent evaporation is suddenly halted, it appears that solvent flowing toward the evaporating surface exerts enough viscous drag on particles to overcome their Brownian motion and pack them (at least temporarily). Unlike in these latex coatings, the strong influence of solvent flow on the structure of self-assembled opals has not yet been seriously considered and will be discussed below.…”

Cryo-SEM studies of latex/ceramic nanoparticle coating microstructure development

“…The technique provided direct visualization of microstructure development, beginning with the aqueous dispersion and throughout the drying of hydrated coatings [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Ming et al [11] and Huang et al [12] froze latex coatings that had been dried for successively longer times to study the structural development.…”

“…This rebound indicates elastic deformation of latex particles during the compaction stage, not the long-assumed viscoelastic deformation. Using the "timesectioning" technique, Sutanto et al [13] revealed the progression of the consolidation top-down from the drying free surface of a suspension. Ma et al [14] captured the progression of an air invasion front during drying of bimodal latex coating.…”

“…Indeed, many academic investigations have used such narrow coatings or small circular drops of coatings that they have not observed truly "top-down" drying [19,20]. Sutanto et al [13] and Ge et al [15] imaged sequences of laterally advancing stages of drying near the edges of flat drying drops of latex coatings. At growing distance from the edge of the coating, the concentration changed abruptly from dispersion to consolidate in a lateral consolidation front.…”

Direct observation of freeze-thaw instability of latex coatings via high pressure freezing and cryogenic SEM

“…17,18 A droplet of polymer dispersion or latex paint was sandwiched between two brass discs, each with a cylinder-shaped indentation. The assemblage was quickly frozen in a Bal-Tec HPM 010 high pressure freezing machine at 2100 bar.…”