Lattice Boltzmann Study of Microdroplet Evaporation Process in Pixel Pits

Inkjet printing has the advantages of high material utilization, low cost, and large-area production and is a promising manufacturing technology for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays. However, the droplet evaporation in micron-size pixel pits is highly influenced by the pit wall. Such a process is extremely difficult to control, leading to the appearance of defects such as the coffee ring in the printing process of OLED displays. In this work, a multiphase thermal lattice Boltzmann (LB) model based on multiple distribution functions is established to study the evaporation process of micron-size droplets in pits. According to the characteristics of the largest number of the three-phase contact line (TCL) appearing in the evaporation process, the evaporation modes can be divided into three types, i.e., one, two, and three TCLs. In the 1-TCL mode, the droplet stays in constant contact radius (CCR) for the shortest time; in 2-TCL and 3-TCL modes, the liquid film fracture behavior of evaporating droplets in the pit is well captured. The effects of the pit height and the contact angle on the droplet evaporation mode are investigated in detail. The phase diagrams of evaporation modes with different parameters are also established. The revealed evaporation mechanism is supposed to be useful for regulating the droplet evaporation behavior and controlling the cured film shape in the OLED printing process.