Drying dissipative structures of lycopodium spore particles in aqueous dispersion

Abstract

Drying dissipative structures of aqueous dispersions of lycopodium particles (31 μm in average diameter) from the spores of Lycopodium clavatum were studied as a function of the particle concentrations in the presence and the absence of sodium chloride. The drying patterns formed on a cover glass, a watch glass and a Petri glass dish were observed macroscopically and microscopically. Lycopodium particles were the combination of hemisphere and tetrahedron in their shape and possessed the weakly acidic groups on their surfaces. The vague broad ring structure was observed even for the very large colloidal particles, and their size on a cover glass decreased as particle concentration decreased. Microscopic drying patterns almost disappeared except the short chain-like patterns. These observations support that the convectional contribution on the dissipative drying pattern formation is still effective in the lycopodium suspensions, though the convectional forces in the suspension are very weak compared with the sedimentation forces.