Dr. Ronan Daly and Dr. Alfonso Castrejon-Pita: Drying patterns of AKD on Glass
This optical microscopy image shows the drying and cracking of a film formed when an alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) dispersion is deposited and dried on a glass microscope slide. AKD is a waxy material that is commonly used in industry to treat paper and reduce its water absorbance. This can improve the quality of inkjet printing by reducing the spread of ink drops. As part of an on-going European project in the Inkjet Research Centre we are studying the ability of AKD to change the wettability of a range of surfaces. This will be useful in microfluidics, where the control of very low volume flows is used to make new diagnostic and lab-on-chip technologies. The final image is stitched together using ImageJ software from an array of images taken with an Olympus BX51 microscope in the Nanoscience Centre. The image is taken using transmission illumination.
Acknowledgements: Supervisor: Professor Ian Hutchings.
Dr. Ronan Daly and Dr. Alfonso Castrejon-Pita: Drying patterns of AKD on Glass
This optical microscopy image shows the drying and cracking of a film formed when an alkyl ketene dimer (AKD) dispersion is deposited and dried on a glass microscope slide. AKD is a waxy material that is commonly used in industry to treat paper and reduce its water absorbance. This can improve the quality of inkjet printing by reducing the spread of ink drops. As part of an on-going European project in the Inkjet Research Centre we are studying the ability of AKD to change the wettability of a range of surfaces. This will be useful in microfluidics, where the control of very low volume flows is used to make new diagnostic and lab-on-chip technologies. The final image is stitched together using ImageJ software from an array of images taken with an Olympus BX51 microscope in the Nanoscience Centre. The image is taken using transmission illumination.
Acknowledgements: Supervisor: Professor Ian Hutchings.