Emergence of Many Mini-Circles from a Coffee Suspension with Mechanical Rotation

Abstract

Drying of an aqueous suspension containing fine granules leads to the formation of a circular pattern, i.e., the coffee-ring effect. Here, we report the effect of mechanical rotation with drying of an aqueous suspension containing a large amount of granular particles as in the Turkish coffee. It was found that wavy fragmented stripes, or a “waggly pattern”, appear in the early stage of the drying process and a “polka-dot pattern” with many small circles is generated in the late stage. We discuss the mechanism of these patterns in terms of the kinetic effect on micro phase-segregation. We suggest that the waggly pattern is induced through a mechanism similar to spinodal decomposition, whereas polka-dot formation is accompanied by the enhanced segregation of a water-rich phase under mechanical rotation.