Thermally enhanced solubility for the shrinking of a nanoink droplet in a surrounding liquid

This paper presents a theoretical investigation of the phenomenon of diffusion-dominated shrinking of a nanoparticle suspension droplet in a surrounding liquid of a different substance. The shrinking is controlled thermally by enhancing the solubility of the droplet into the surrounding medium. The model is based on the transport equations for mass, momentum and energy in spherical coordinates, considering all important thermophysical phenomena such as the transfer of energy and species over the moving interface as well as particle transport and diffusion processes within the droplet and the surrounding medium. Solutions for the interface velocity and the velocity fields are obtained, describing the diffusive nature of the problem.