Laurence Talini

Contact me: laurence.talini AT cnrs.fr

Research activities

My current research activities deal with questions involving liquid films: how can the drying of a film of complex fluid result in a solid layer of uniform thickness? What are the lifetimes of films between the bubbles in oil foams and how can they be decreased? What are the effects of intermolocular forces on ultra-thin films spread on solid substrates?

• Drying of films of complex liquids

The drying of complex fluid droplets has been extensively studied in the last decades. In particular, the inhomogeneities of the final dry deposit resulting from a non uniform evaporation flux are well known. The drying of a complex fluid film initially spread on a solid substrate has received less attention although its understanding is crucial for the control of homogeneous liquid coating processes in industrial processes. When a liquid films dries, a front, which separates a dry zone from the wet zone, propagates from the edges of the film towards the centre. Any point defect or variation in evaporation flux across the front can lead to significant variations in the thickness of the final deposit. In Apolline Faidherbe’s thesis work, we induce controlled variations in evaporation flux in order to determine the link between evaporation flux heterogeneities and the morphology of the final dry substrate during the drying of polymer solutions. In Gabrielle Di Mauro’s thesis, we examine the effects of defects (dust or topological defects of the solid substrate) on the thickness of the dry polymer layer.

• Foaming and antifoaming in oil mixtures
• Effects of intermolecular forces on ultra-thin liquid films

Related recent publications

• Drying liquid coatings with an evaporation mask: theory and experiments. A. Faidherbe, M. Wilmet, J. Teisseire, F. Lequeux and L. Talini. Langmuir 39, 3018 (2023). PDF
• Mechanisms ruling the lifetimes of films of liquid mixtures. H.-P. Tran, N. Passade-Boupat, F. Lequeux and L. Talini, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 944, A55 (2022). PDF
•  Understanding frothing of liquid mixtures: a surfactantlike effect at the origin of enhanced liquid film lifetimes. H.-P. Tran, M. Arangalage, L. Jorgensen, N. Passade-Boupat, F. Lequeux and L. Talini. Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 178002 (2020). PDF
• Probing interfacial effects with thermocapillary flows. M. Maza-Cuello, C. Frétigny, and L. Talini. Phys. Rev. Fluids 7, 124003 (2022). PDF
• Modification of the dynamics of ultrathin  wetting films. C. Clavaud, M. Maza-Cuello, C. Frétigny, L. Talini, T. Bickel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 228004 (2021). PDF

Former labs

2007-2019: Lab SIMM (Soft Matter and Engineering Sciences), ESPCI, Paris. In SIMM I have been interested in problems of transfers in soft matter systems. Related questions were for instance: How does a droplet of solvant spread onto a soluble substrate? What process limits the evaporation and boiling of the emulsified phase of an emulsion? I have also developed an experimental technique to measure the thermal fluctuations of free surfaces of liquids and soft solids. Such measurements can for instance be used to determine  linear visoelastic properties of materials in a fully non invasive way.

1998-2006: Lab FAST (Fluides, Automatique et Systèmes Thermiques). In FAST I have worked on sedimentation in complex fluids and addressed the following questions: How do solid particles settle in a shear-thinning polymer solution? What is the effect of gravity on a fractal colloidal gel that has a very small yield-stress?

Teaching

• M2 Matériaux d’avenir : design et ingénierie (MADI) UE Matériaux du quotidien
• Tutorats Introduction à  la Physique des Polymères ESPCI
• M2 Soft Matter and Biological Physics: Confined flows and transfers in complex fluids