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Article
Wetting of rings on a nanopatterned surface: A lattice model study
Physical Review E (2006)
  • Peter A Monson, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  • Fabien Porcheron
Abstract
We perform mean-field density functional theory calculations on a lattice model to study the wetting of a solid substrate decorated with a ring pattern of nanoscale dimensions. We have found three different liquid morphologies on the substrate: a ring morphology where the liquid covers the pattern, a bulge morphology where a droplet is forming on one side of the ring, and a morphology where the liquid forms a cap spanning the nonwetting disk inside the pattern. We investigate the relative stability of these morphologies as a function of the ring size, wall-fluid interaction, and temperature. The results found are in very good agreement with experiments and calculations performed on similar systems at a micrometer length scale. The bulge morphology has also been observed in Monte Carlo simulations of the lattice model. Our results show that (i) morphologies of wetting patterns previously observed on a much larger (μm) scale can also form on a nm length scale, (ii) whether or not this happens depends crucially on the size of the wettable pattern, and (iii) the wettable ring may only be partially wet by the bulge morphology of the fluid. This morphology is a result of a spontaneously broken symmetry in the system.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2006
Publisher Statement
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevE.73.041603 Copyright 2006 by The American Physical Society.
Citation Information
Peter A Monson and Fabien Porcheron. "Wetting of rings on a nanopatterned surface: A lattice model study" Physical Review E Vol. 73 Iss. 4 (2006)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/peter_monson/1/