A mesoscopic model for (de)wetting

We present a mesoscopic model for simulating the dynamics of a non-volatile liquid on a solid substrate. The wetting properties of the solid can be tuned from complete wetting to total non-wetting. This model opens the way to study the dynamics of drops and liquid thin films at mesoscopic length scales of the order of the nanometer. As particular applications, we analyze the kinetics of spreading of a liquid drop wetting a solid substrate and the dewetting of a liquid film on a hydrophobic substrate. In all these cases, very good agreement is found between simulations and theoretical predictions.     

液态镓在石墨烯表面的润湿性及形貌特征

液态Ga及其合金的熔点低、毒副作用小、导电率高,使得这类液态金属能像石墨烯一样被广泛应用于微流器件、柔性电子器件中,制备这些器件的关键在于有效控制各生产环节中液态金属在固体界面上的润湿性及形貌特征.基于Lennard-Jones(L-J)势函数,利用分子动力学模拟方法研究了金属Ga在石墨烯表面的润湿性,根据模拟结果拟合的L-J势参数能正确描述Ga原子与衬底之间的相互作用并得到了与实验值极为接近的润湿角,发现衬底与液膜间相互作用的微小改变都会对最终润湿形态产生极大影响,平衡态的润湿角和脱离衬底速度随着Ga-C间势能的减小而增大,并成功获得了不同厚度的Ga液膜在石墨烯表面的形态演变规律,极为符合液态Ga的基本特性.利用所得L-J势函数参数模拟了液态Ga在粗糙度相同但纳米柱尖端形貌不同的C材料表面的润湿演变,发现纳米柱尖端形貌对液态Ga的润湿过程及状态影响极大.     

微矩形凹槽表面液滴各向异性浸润行为的研究

受自然界启发,仿生微结构被广泛用于调控固-液界面的性质.研究显示,液滴在微结构表面的各向异性浸润行为可用于实现微流动方向和速度的控制,且其各向异性浸润与微结构的尺寸和分布等密切相关.本文研究了微矩形凹槽尺寸对液滴各向异性浸润行为的影响规律.结果显示,液滴沿平行沟槽的方向具有较小的运动阻力、易铺展,因此具有较小接触角;而垂直于沟槽方向,由于沟槽的阻隔作用具有较大运动阻力,因而具有较大接触角,并且在垂直方向液滴的浸润过程是三相线一系列钉扎和跳跃行为.在微矩形凹槽表面,液滴沿平行方向接触角θ//与肋板宽度R和凹槽宽度G密切相关,其值与表面固体面积比成反比;而垂直于沟槽方向的接触角θ⊥随肋板宽度R和凹槽宽度G变化基本保持不变.同时各向异性液滴的变形比L/W、特征方向接触角比值θ⊥/θ//与表面固体面积比成正比.研究结果有助于加深理解微结构表面浸润行为的机制,并为微矩形凹槽在微流动控制方向的应用提供技术支持.     

Phonon contribution to wetting phenomena: macroscopic theory

We present a macroscopic treatment that clarifies the role of phonons in the wetting of a solid by an ideal liquid, such as liquid ⁴He. We show that in the equation for the wetting temperature the phonon contribution cancels exactly. Therefore, a pure phonon mechanism always results in wetting, and other mechanisms determine whether wetting or non-wetting occurs. The importance of ripplon excitations for the wetting phenomenon is discussed.     

Hydrodynamic theory of forced dewetting

A prototypical problem in the study of wetting phenomena is that of a solid plunging into or being withdrawn from a liquid bath. In the latter, dewetting case, a critical speed exists above which a three-phase contact line is no longer sustainable and the solid can no longer remain dry. Instead, a liquid film is being deposited on the solid. Demonstrating this transition from a dry to a wetted solid to be of hydrodynamic origin, we provide the first theoretical explanation of a classical prediction due to Derjaguin and Levi: instability occurs when the outer, static meniscus approaches the shape corresponding to a perfectly wetting fluid. Our analysis investigates the conditions under which the highly curved contact line region can be matched to the static profile far away from it.     

Avoided critical behavior in dynamically forced wetting

A solid object can be coated by a nonwetting liquid since a receding contact line cannot exceed a critical speed. In this Letter we study the dynamical wetting transition at which a liquid film gets deposited by withdrawing a vertical plate out of a liquid reservoir. It has recently been predicted that this wetting transition is critical with diverging time scales and coincides with the disappearance of stationary menisci. We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that the transition is due to the formation of a solitary wave, well below the critical point. As a consequence, relaxation times remain finite at threshold. The structure of the liquid deposited on the plate involves a capillary ridge that does not trivially match the Landau-Levich film.     

Surface energy modification by electron beam

We observe a pronounced variation of wettability properties in solid state materials induced by a low-energy electron beam. The phenomenon occurs in several stages characterized by various mechanisms. We show that for low electron doses the irradiation leads to decrease in the wetting of a dielectric surface due to induced surface electric potential. The higher electron charge leads to formation of a chemical monolayer on material’s surface. It has been found that the electron irradiation strongly modifies the surface free energy of SiO₂ by decreasing its total surface free energy value, almost twice. However, electron-induced variations of dispersive and polar components of the surface free energy are quite different and depend of incident electron charge.     

Wetting, spreading, and adsorption on randomly rough surfaces

The wetting properties of solid substrates with customary (i.e., macroscopic) random roughness are considered as a function of the microscopic contact angle of the wetting liquid and its partial pressure in the surrounding gas phase. Analytic expressions are derived which allow for any given lateral correlation function and height distribution of the roughness to calculate the wetting phase diagram, the adsorption isotherms, and to locate the percolation transition in the adsorbed liquid film. Most features turn out to depend only on a few key parameters of the roughness, which can be clearly identified. It is shown that a first-order transition in the adsorbed film thickness, which we term "Wenzel prewetting", occurs generically on typical roughness topographies, but is absent on purely Gaussian roughness. It is thereby shown that even subtle deviations from Gaussian roughness characteristics may be essential for correctly predicting even qualitative aspects of wetting.     

Response properties at the dynamic water/dichloroethane liquid–liquid interface

ABSTRACT

We present a novel approach for calculating the static dielectric permittivity profile of a liquid–liquid interface (LLI) from molecular dynamics simulations. To obtain well-defined features, comparable to those observed at solid–liquid interfaces, we find it essential to reference to the instantaneous liquid–liquid interface rather than the more commonly used average Gibbs interface. We provide a coarse-grained approach for the practical definition of the instantaneous interface and present numerical results for the prototypical water/1,2-dichloroethane system. These results show that the parallel components of the dielectric permittivity tensor can be accurately extracted. In contrast, the perpendicular component does not converge to the correct bulk value at large distances from the LLI, highlighting a flaw in the regularly applied coarse-graining procedure.     

Influence of phase transitions on the second harmonic generation in metal nanoparticles

In this work we use nonlinear optical properties of Ga nanoparticles monolayers of different average sizes embedded in dielectric matrices to investigate the liquid-solid phase transitions in these materials. Ga nanoparticles, formed by exploiting the partial wetting of liquid Ga over a SiO_x surface are irradiated with fs laser pulses from a Ti:sapphire source. The resulting Second Harmonic (SH) generated in the reflection and transmission directions is measured along the phase transitions by cooling the sample from 320 K down to liquid nitrogen temperature. Hysteresis cycles are observed in the nonlinear transmission, which exhibit a strong amplification from the solid to liquid values as compared to the linear optical results. A simple model for SH generation, based on Mie scattering calculations which includes the effect of surface plasmon resonance provides a fair key for the interpretation of the observed effects.     

Dynamics of wetting layer formation

We study the formation and growth of wetting layers in the binary liquid mixture cyclohexane-methanol. By progressively deuterating the methanol we can tune the equilibrium wetting layer thickness. Hysteresis of the transition is observed for large thicknesses and is absent for thinner ones. This can be understood by calculating the activation energy for wetting layer nucleation as a function of the film thickness. We also show that the late-stage growth of the wetting layer after the nucleation process follows a power law in time, in agreement with a diffusion-limited growth mechanism proposed theoretically.     

Long ranged correlations at a solid-fluid interface A signature of the approach to complete wetting

We have investigated the behaviour of the pairwise distribution function for Sullivan's model of a gas adsorbed on a solid substrate. We show that in the approach to complete wetting, when a thick film of liquid density is adsorbed on the substrate, long ranged transverse correlations (parallel to the surface) develop at the edge of the film where the density profile of the fluid resembles that of a liquid-gas interface. The long ranged correlations can be attributed to damped capillary-wave-like fluctuations; for a class I wetting situation the damping decreases and the range of the correlations increases and ultimately diverges as the bulk gas pressure approaches the saturated vapour pressure.

Our analysis provides a physical explanation of the long ranged transverse correlations calculated by Foiles and Ashcroft in their recent study of a model of argon at a carbon dioxide substrate. We also predict that long range transverse correlations will occur for the case of adsorption from a dense liquid provided the solid-fluid potential is such that a thick film of gas forms between the substrate and the bulk liquid.     

Molecular simulation study of the adhesion work for water droplets on water monolayer at room temperature

The wetting phenomenon of water droplets coexisting with the ordered water monolayer termed an unexpected phenomenon of "water that does not wet a water monolayer" at room temperature has been found on several solid surfaces.Although the hydrogen bond saturation inside the monolayer can qualitatively describe this phenomenon, whether the Young–Dupré equation still holds under this unconventional wetting framework is still not answered. In this work, we have calculated the contact angle values of the droplets as well as the work of adhesion between the droplets and the monolayer based on an extended phantom-wall method. The results show that similar to the conventional solid–liquid interface,classical Young–Dupré equation is also applicable for the interface of liquid water and ordered water monolayer.     

Grain Boundary Phase Transitions and their Influence on Properties of Polycrystals

Grain boundary (GB) phase transitions can change drastically the properties of polycrystals. The GB wetting phase transition can occur in the two-phase area of the bulk phase diagram where the liquid (L) and solid (S) phases are in equlibrium. Above the temperature of the GB wetting phase transition a GB cannot exist in equlibrium contact with the liquid phase. The experimental data on GB wetting phase transitions in numerous systems are analysed. The GB wetting tie-line can continue in the one-phase area of the bulk phase diagram as a GB solidus line. This line represents the GB premelting or prewetting phase transitions. The GB properties change drastically when GB solidus line is crossed by a change in the temperature or concentration. The experimental data on GB segregation, energy, mobility and diffusivity obtained in various systems both in polycrystals and bicrystals are analysed. In case if two solid phases are in equilibrium, the GB “solid state wetting” can occur. In this case the layer of the solid phase 2 has to substitute GBs in the solid phase 1. Such GB phase transition occurs if the energy of two interphase boundaries is lower than the GB energy in the phase 1.     

Molecular-Dynamics Simulations of Droplets on a Solid Surface

By using a semi-empirical Lennard-Jones embedded-atom-method potential, we study the influence of many-body forces and atomic size mismatch on the wetting behavior of nano droplets on a solid surface. With molecular dynamics simulations, we find that the contact angle decreases with increasing many-body forces. The increase of atomic size mismatch between solid and liquid results in the decrease of contact angles. Our calculation also shows that the interface structure is strongly affected by the interaction between liquid and solid as well as the atomic size mismatch. For weak solid-liquid interaction, the interface layer of the droplet nearest to the solid exhibits a typical simple liquid structure regardless of the size mismatch. For strong solid-liquid interaction, evident ordering in the interface layer is observed for well matched cases.     

光控光子晶体偏光片

提出了一种新颖的调节液晶光子晶体光子带隙的方法.光子晶体波导通过往二维三角形光子晶体的介质柱之间填充液晶得到，光诱导液晶取向以改变液晶的折射指数从而改变光子晶体的光子带隙.数值模拟结果表明：通过外界光场控制所填充的向列相液晶的方向可以对这种二维三角形介质柱光子晶体的禁带结构进行调节.与电场调制方法相比，该光控液晶取向技术具有响应速度快、结构简单的优点.这种可调光子晶体可用于制作新颖的光敏偏光片.     

Morphology and structure of thin liquid-crystalline films at nematic-isotropic transition

We review the main features of very thin nematic liquid-crystalline films on solid substrates, focusing on 5CB on oxidized silicon wafers. By discussing the theoretical aspects of the observed structures, we show that the phenomena at work include isotropic capillary condensation and that the coexistence of isotropic and nematic terraces in thin films is a result of the interplay of several mechanisms. Further theoretical as well as experimental efforts are needed to completely understand the wetting behavior of these systems.Received: 1 August 2003PACS: 68.08.Bc Wetting - 68.15. + e Liquid thin films - 61.30.Hn Surface phenomena in liquid crystals including anchoring, anchoring transitions, surface-induced layering, surface-induced ordering, wetting, prewetting transitions, and wetting transitions     

Triple-point wetting on rough substrates

The influence of substrate roughness on the wetting scenario of adsorbed van der Waals films is investigated by theory and experiment. Calculating the bending free energy penalty of a solid sheet picking up the substrate roughness, we show that a finite roughness always leads to triple-point wetting reducing the widths of the adsorbed solid films considerably as compared to that of smooth substrates. Testing the theory against our experimental data for molecular hydrogen adsorbed on gold, we find quantitative agreement.     

Wetting by solid helium,a model system

This is a review of the wetting properties of solid helium on various solid substrates. Due to its extreme purity and to its very fast growth dynamics, solid helium 4 is often considered as a model system in materials science. Several wetting phenomena have been studied with helium 4 crystals, namely contact angles on solid substrates with variable roughness, wetting on graphite where epitaxial growth takes place, the roughening transition as a function of film thickness, the wetting of grain boundaries by the liquid phase.     

基于电润湿微棱镜技术的可调光衰减器特性分析

利用电控改变固液界面湿润角的电润湿微棱镜(EMPs)技术以及双自聚焦透镜组合设计了一类新颖的可调光衰减器,并对该衰减器的衰减性能进行了原理分析和实验测量.理论分析和实验结果表明其具有良好的光衰减控制效应,在不大的电压变化范围(例如135—139V)内即可实现2—60dB的光衰减范围.该器件构思新颖,具有结构简单、容易制作的优点,经过优化后将会在光通信领域得到广泛的应用.缺点是工作电压偏高,需要进一步筛选出介电系数高的物质来作为介电绝缘层材料,以便降低工作电压,达到实际可以使用的目的. 关键词： 微流控光学 电湿效应 可调光衰减器 电润湿微棱镜