Recent experiments have shown that the striking structure formation indewetting films of evaporating colloidal nanoparticle suspensions occurs in anultrathin `postcursor' layer that is left behind by a mesoscopic dewettingfront. Various phase change and transport processes occur in the postcursorlayer, that may lead to nanoparticle deposits in the form of labyrinthine,network or strongly branched `finger' structures. We develop a versatiledynamical density functional theory to model this system which captures allthese structures and may be employed to investigate the influence ofevaporation/condensation, nanoparticle transport and solute transport in adifferentiated way. We highlight, in particular, the influence of the subtleinterplay of decomposition in the layer and contact line motion on the observedparticle-induced transverse instability of the dewetting front.
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