Skin formation in drying a film of soft matter solutions: Application of solute based Lagrangian scheme

When a film of soft matter solutions is being dried, a skin layer often forms at its surface, which is a gel-like elastic phase made of concentrated soft matter solutions. We study the dynamics of this process by using the solute based Lagrangian scheme which was proposed by us recently. In this scheme, the process of the gelation (i.e., the change from sol to gel) can be naturally incorporated in the diffusion equation. Effects of the elasticity of the skin phase, the evaporation rate of the solvents, and the initial concentration of the solutions are discussed. Moreover, the condition for the skin formation is provided.