A microscopic view on contact angle selection

Abstract

We discuss the equilibrium condition for a liquid that partially wets a solid on the level of intermolecular forces. Using a mean field continuum description, we generalize the capillary pressure from variation of the free energy and show at what length scale the equilibrium contact angle is selected. After recovering Young's law for homogeneous substrates, it is shown how hysteresis of the contact angle can be incorporated in a self-consistent fashion. In all cases the liquid-vapor interface takes a nontrivial shape, which is compared to models using a disjoining pressure.

12 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Disjoining Potential and Spreading of Thin Liquid Layers in the Diffuse Interface Model Coupled to Hydrodynamics
• Hydrodynamic theory of de-wetting
• Gas Enrichment at Liquid-Wall Interfaces
• Quantitative study of laterally inhomogeneous wetting films
• Relaxation of a dewetting contact line Part 2: Experiments
• Contact line motion for partially wetting fluids
• Equation of motion of the triple contact line along an inhomogeneous surface

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Elastocapillarity: Surface Tension and the Mechanics of Soft Solids
• Origin of line tension for a Lennard-Jones nanodroplet
• Contact angles on a soft solid: from Young's law to Neumann's law
• Formation of surface nanobubbles and universality of their contact angles: A molecular dynamics approach
• Wetting of ferrofluids: phenomena and control
• Elastic deformation due to tangential capillary forces
• Anomalous capillary filling and wettability reversal in nanochannels
• A volume of fluid method for simulating fluid/fluid interfaces in contact with solid boundaries
• Equilibrium contact angle and adsorption layer properties with surfactants
• Hydrodynamics of countercurrent flows in a structured packed column: effects of initial wetting and dynamic contact angle
• Nanoscale fluid structure of liquid-solid-vapour contact lines for a wide range of contact angles
• Thermal fluctuations of an interface near a contact line
• The influence of short range forces on melting along grain boundaries