A generality in stress development of silica/poly(vinyl alcohol) mixtures during drying process

• We investigate the role of polymers in stress development of drying silica/PVA mixtures.
• Adsorbed PVA reduces the size of aggregates, thus increases the stress in the solid film.
• The effect of adsorbed PVA is hindered as non-adsorbed PVA increases.
• The role of PVA in stress development is generalized to yield a single master curve.

Colloidal dispersions in polymer solution are important material systems in coating and printing applications. Understanding the role of polymers in drying process is important to obtain the desired performance of the solid film. In this study, we investigated the role of polymers in stress development during drying of aqueous silica and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) suspensions, and the microstructure of solid film. Adsorbed polymers were found to affect the spatial organization of silica particles, which reduces the size of aggregates and the increase in stress development. The effect of adsorbed polymers on the stress development was hindered as the amount of non-adsorbed polymer increased. The role of adsorbed and non-adsorbed PVA in stress development was found to be generalized to yield a single master curve independent of polymer concentration.

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