Control of the Marangoni Effect in the Drying Process of a Polymer Solution Coated on a Flat Substrate through Temperature, Evaporation and Solute Concentration Management

The drying process of polymer solutions coated on a flat substrate is very important in various industrial applications. We have proposed and modified a model of the drying process of a polymer solution coated on a flat substrate for uniform polymer film deposition. We used the model to control the thickness of a thin film after drying through management of the temperature, evaporation, and concentration. We incorporated the Marangoni effect into the existing model in the form of pseudo-negative diffusion at an upper gas-liquid interface. We applied the thermal, evaporative, and concentration management to the modified model incorporating the Marangoni effect. The results demonstrated that our method of thickness control of a thin film after drying was effective for improving the Marangoni effect.