Crack patterns in drying suspensions of binary fluid mixture

The drying of particle-laden binary fluid mixtures is a crucial process in diverse industrial settings such as ink-jet printing and coating. Here we report on the mechanical instabilities in drying suspensions of colloidal particles dispersed in binary fluid mixtures confined in a microfluidic channel. Our observations suggest that the mechanical instabilities of the drying particulate film can be manipulated by the hydrodynamic instabilities of the drying fluid mixtures.