Solvent-driven dewetting and rim instability

The dewetting behavior of thin films of solvent-laden polymer was investigated. It was shown that this solvent-driven dewetting enables to change spreading coefficient by an order of magnitude that was not readily realiizable in thermal dewetting and to study polar interactions that have not fully exploited experimentally. The two different types of the rim instability, which were quite different from each other, have been found. It was found that with the polar solvent, the rim instability changes from one type to another with increasing film thickness whereas the unstable rim becomes stable for an apolar solvent.