Evaporative deposition from a sessile drop is a simple and appealing way to deposit materials on a surface. In this work, we deposit living, motile colloidal particles (bacteria) on mica from drops of aqueous solution. We show for the first time that it is possible to produce a continuous variation in the deposition pattern from ring deposits to cellular pattern deposits by incremental changes in surface wettability which we achieve by timed exposure of the mica surface to the atmosphere. We show that it is possible to change the contact angle of the drop from less than 5 degrees to near 20 degrees by choice of atmospheric exposure time. This controls the extent of drop spreading, which in turn determines the architecture of the deposition pattern.

The Amish and Hutterites are U.S. agricultural populations whose lifestyles are remarkably similar in many respects but whose farming practices, in particular, are distinct; the former follow traditional farming practices whereas the latter use industrialized farming practices. The populations also show striking disparities in the prevalence of asthma, and little is known about the immune responses underlying these disparities.

Abstract:

Evaporative deposition from a sessile drop is an appealing way to deposit materials on a surface due to the simplicity of the technique. In this work we deposit aqueous solutions of two types of colloidal particles, namely bacteria and microspheres, on mica. We show that by controlling the extent of initial drop spreading through subtle changes in surface conditioning caused by exposure to the laboratory atmosphere in a laminar flow hood it is possible to systematically vary the particle deposition patterns. On freshly cleaved mica the contact angle of water is