Characteristics of nFOG, an aerosol-based wet thin film coating technique Show others and affiliations
2018 (English) In: JCT Research, ISSN 1547-0091, E-ISSN 2168-8028, Vol. 15, no 3, p. 623-632Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
An atmospheric pressure aerosol-based wet thin film coating technique called the nFOG is characterized and applied in polymer film coatings. In the nFOG, a fog of droplets is formed by two air-assist atomizers oriented toward each other inside a deposition chamber. The droplets settle gravitationally and deposit on a substrate, forming a wet film. In this study, the continuous deposition mode of the nFOG is explored. We determined the size distribution of water droplets inside the chamber in a wide side range of 0.1–100 µm and on the substrate using aerosol measurement instruments and optical microscopy, respectively. The droplet size distribution was found to be bimodal with droplets of approximately 30–50 µm contributing the most to the mass of the formed wet film. The complementary measurement methods allow us to estimate the role of different droplet deposition mechanisms. The obtained results suggest that the deposition velocity of the droplets is lower than the calculated terminal settling velocity, likely due to the flow fields inside the chamber. Furthermore, the mass flux of the droplets onto the substrate is determined to be in the order of 1 g/m3s, corresponding to a wet film growth rate of 1 µm/s. Finally, the nFOG technique is demonstrated by preparing polymer films with thicknesses in the range of approximately 0.1–20 µm.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages 2018. Vol. 15, no 3, p. 623-632
Keywords [en]
Aerosol measurement, Droplet size distribution, nFOG, Polymer film, Wet coating technique, Aerosols, Atmospheric pressure, Atomization, Atomizers, Coating techniques, Drops, Film growth, Plastic coatings, Polymer films, Semiconducting films, Size distribution, Continuous deposition, Deposition velocities, Droplet size distributions, Polymer film coating, Terminal settling velocity, Wet coating techniques, Thin films
National Category
Natural Sciences
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-34448 DOI: 10.1007/s11998-017-0022-7 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85045145179 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-34448 DiVA, id: diva2:1237607
2018-08-092018-08-092023-05-22 Bibliographically approved