Surface tension of liquid Al-Cu and wetting at the Cu/Sapphire solid-liquid interface

For the study of the interaction of a liquid alloy with differently oriented single crystalline sapphire surfaces precise surface tension data of the liquid are fundamental. We measured the surface tension of liquid Al-Cu contactlessly on electromagnetically levitated samples using the oscillating drop technique. Data were obtained for samples covering the entire range of composition and in a broad temperature range. The surface tensions can be described as linear functions of temperature with negative slopes. Moreover, they decrease monotonically with an increase of aluminium concentration. The observed behaviour with respect to both temperature and concentration is in agreement with a thermodynamic model calculation using the regular solution approximation. Surface tensions were used to calculate interfacial energies from the contact angles of liquid Cu droplets, deposited on the C(0001), A(11-20), R(1-102) surfaces of an α-Al₂O₃ substrate. The contact angles were measured by means of the sessile drop method at 1380?K. In the Cu/α-Al₂O₃ system, no anisotropy is evident neither for the contact angles nor for the interfacial energies of different surfaces. The work of adhesion of this system is isotropic, too.     

A lattice Boltzmann method for incompressible two-phase flows on partial wetting surface with large density ratio

This paper reports a new numerical scheme of the lattice Boltzmann method for calculating liquid droplet behaviour on particle wetting surfaces typically for the system of liquid–gas of a large density ratio. The method combines the existing models of Inamuro et al. [T. Inamuro, T. Ogata, S. Tajima, N. Konishi, A lattice Boltzmann method for incompressible two-phase flows with large density differences, J. Comput. Phys. 198 (2004) 628–644] and Briant et al. [A.J. Briant, P. Papatzacos, J.M. Yeomans, Lattice Boltzmann simulations of contact line motion in a liquid–gas system, Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London A 360 (2002) 485–495; A.J. Briant, A.J. Wagner, J.M. Yeomans, Lattice Boltzmann simulations of contact line motion: I. Liquid–gas systems. Phys. Rev. E 69 (2004) 031602; A.J. Briant, J.M. Yeomans, Lattice Boltzmann simulations of contact line motion: II. Binary fluids, Phys. Rev. E 69 (2004) 031603] and has developed novel treatment for partial wetting boundaries which involve droplets spreading on a hydrophobic surface combined with the surface of relative low contact angles and strips of relative high contact angles. The interaction between the fluid–fluid interface and the partial wetting wall has been typically considered. Applying the current method, the dynamics of liquid drops on uniform and heterogeneous wetting walls are simulated numerically. The results of the simulation agree well with those of theoretical prediction and show that the present LBM can be used as a reliable way to study fluidic control on heterogeneous surfaces and other wetting related subjects.     

The apparent state of droplets on a rough surface

The factors influencing the state and wetting transition of droplets on a rough surface are both complex and obscure. The change in wetting is directly reflected by changes under the contact condition of the droplets with the surface. The recent study about the wettability of the superhydrophobic surface under the condensing condition arouses the new understanding about the apparent state of droplets on a rough surface. In this work, to validate the existence of droplets in an intermediate state, a microscale pillar topological polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface was manufactured and its wettability under various conditions was studied. According to the experimental data, it is proposed that the wetting state of a rough surface may be embodied using the contact area ratio of a solid/liquid/gas droplet with the projective plane. A general calculation model for the apparent contact angle of droplets is given and expressed diagrammatically. It is found that the measured apparent contact angles of droplets at different states on the surface falls within the range predicted by our proposed equation. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50606025)     

液滴撞击加热壁面传热实验研究

本文采用高速摄像仪对水滴和乙醇液滴撞击加热壁面后的蒸发过程进行了实验观测, 分析了液滴撞击加热壁面后的蒸发特性参数. 实验中, 两种液体初始温度均为20 ℃, 不锈钢壁面初始温度范围为68-126℃. 水滴初始直径为2.07 mm, 撞击壁面时Weber 数为2-44; 乙醇液滴初始直径为1.64 mm, Weber数为3-88. 结果表明, 液滴受到重力、表面张力及流动性的影响, 在蒸发过程的大部分时间内, 水滴高度持续降低而接触直径几乎不变; 蒸发后期, 液滴发生回缩, 水滴的接触直径、高度和接触角出现振荡现象. 乙醇液滴的接触角随时间的增加呈现先减小随后保持不变的趋势, 而接触直径和高度则持续减小, 直到液滴完全蒸发. 液滴蒸发总时长与液体物性和壁面温度有关, 随壁面温度的升高而减小, 与液滴撞击壁面时的Weber 数无关. 同时, 随着壁面温度的升高, 液滴显热部分占总换热量的比重增大, 显热部分能量不可忽略, 本文实验条件下得到水滴的平均热流密度为0.014-0.110 W·mm^-2.     

限位液滴瞬时失重自激振荡

为探索重力瞬变引起的约束液滴自激振荡机理, 本文利用落塔装置模拟短时微重力环境并借助高速CCD记录圆形限位基片上液滴整个过程的运动情况. 自激振荡是微重力下液滴形态的重整恢复过程, 边界的限位作用使得液滴在整个运动过程接触线钉扎不变, 具体可分为两个阶段: 首先是振荡的高低点位置高度渐进上升的液滴形态变化阶段, 与重力环境渐进变化有关; 而后是平衡位置附近的阻尼衰减振荡阶段, 此时振荡的频率恒定, 振幅衰减类似孤立黏性液滴的指数衰减过程. 对于第二阶段, 在高低点等位置处存在高度不变过程, 高度起伏变化时液滴振荡模式类似自由液滴二阶振荡, 高度不变时振荡模式类似自由液滴三阶振荡. 此外, 对于本实验体系的恒定接触面积的钉扎约束, 液滴的体积量不同时, 内驱振荡的阶段和模式不变, 但具体的振荡过程有所不同. 对于大体积液滴, 会在初始振荡的中间位置出现高度不变现象, 并且随振荡逐渐消失; 而小液滴中间位置则不存在此现象, 波形较一致; 第二阶段小体积液滴振幅衰减的阻尼率更大, 无量纲频率也更高.     

The debate on the dependence of apparent contact angles on drop contact area or three-phase contact line: A review

A sessile drop is an isolated drop which has been deposited on a solid substrate where the wetted area is limited by the three-phase contact line and characterized by contact angle, contact radius and drop height. Although, wetting has been studied using contact angles of drops on solids for more than 200 years, the question remains unanswered: Is wetting of a rough and chemically heterogeneous surface controlled by the interactions within the solid/liquid contact area beneath the droplet or only at the three-phase contact line? After the publications of Pease in 1945, Extrand in 1997, 2003 and Gao and McCarthy in 2007 and 2009, it was proposed that advancing, receding contact angles, and contact angle hysteresis of rough and chemically heterogeneous surfaces are determined by interactions of the liquid and the solid at the three-phase contact line alone and the interfacial area within the contact perimeter is irrelevant. As a consequence of this statement, the well-known Wenzel (1934) and Cassie (1945) equations which were derived using the contact area approach are proposed to be invalid and should be abandoned. A hot debate started in the field of surface science after 2007, between the three-phase contact line and interfacial contact area approach defenders. This paper presents a review of the published articles on contact angles and summarizes the views of the both sides. After presenting a brief history of the contact angles and their measurement methods, we discussed the basic contact angle theory and applications of contact angles on the characterization of flat, rough and micropatterned superhydrophobic surfaces. The weak and strong sides of both three-phase contact line and contact area approaches were discussed in detail and some practical conclusions were drawn.     

Improvement of water and oil repellency on wood substrates by using fluorinated silica nanocoating

We have investigated a one-step fabrication of fluoro-containing silica coating on wooden substrates, showing multi-functions including super repellency toward water and sunflower oil, low sliding angles, good durability, and low adsorption capacity of moisture. The repellent slurry, consisting of well-mixing silica nanospheres and perfluoroalkyl methacrylic copolymer, is simply prepared and subsequently sprayed over wooden substrates with good adhesion. It has shown that the decoration of silica nanospheres on microscaled wooden texture acts as a crucial role in improving the repellency toward water and sunflower oil droplets. The maximal contact angles can reach as high as 168.3° and 153.6° for water and sunflower oil drops, respectively. These analyses of wetted fraction and work of adhesion also demonstrate the improved repellency due to the addition of silica. This improvement of the repellencies is ascribed to the fact that the drops partially sit on F-coated silica spheres, leaving a layer of air underneath the droplet (i.e., Cassie state). On the basis of the results, the multi-functional coating on wooden substrates delivers a promising commercial feasibility on a variety of woodworks.     

Quadrupolar forces and aggregation of nematic droplets

The electrostatic quadrupolar interaction between spherical nematic droplets in an isotropic (and nonconducting) liquid is calculated. It is found to have an anisotropic form U _q ∝1/R ⁵, where R is the distance between droplets, with repulsion for droplets having parallel orientation of the quadrupole moments and attraction at oblique angles around the orthogonal orientation. In an external magnetic field aligning the orientations of the quadrupole moments, a competition of the quadrupolar repulsion and van der Waals attraction (U _vdW∝ 1/R ⁶) leads to a specific spatial organization of droplets which is in fact often reported in experimental observations (see the monograph by P. Drzaic, Liquid Crystal Dispersions, World Scientific, Singapore (1995) and references cited therein). Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 10, 747–752 (25 November 1998) Published in English in the original Russian journal. Edited by Steve Torstveit.     

Bouncing behaviors of suspension liquid drops on a superhydrophobic surface

Abstract  

This paper reveals three patterns of bouncing behaviors of suspension drops containing calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) powder on a superhydrophobic surface with the aid of a high-speed camera. In transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation, the particles of CaCO₃ are shaped like sticks whose equivalent diameters are about 700 nm. Unlike a pure water drop, dense suspension drops cannot be pinched off at the bounce on the superhydrophobic surface due to a high effective viscosity, whereas the equilibrium contact angle appears to be almost identical in all kinds of droplets.     

冷凝器壁面滴状冷凝的热力学机理及最佳接触角

应用自由能判据证明了冷凝器壁面液滴的力学平衡条件与接触角有关,进而证明了当壁面液滴与壁面的接触大于90°时,冷凝器壁面液滴的化学势将小于同曲率的球形液滴的化学势;另外,在相同饱和比下,壁面液滴的临界半径也小于球形液滴的临界半径.而在接触角小于90°时,情况则恰好相反.正是由于这双重原因,使得滴状冷凝的传热性能大大优于膜状冷凝的传热性能,并由此求出了冷凝器壁面液滴的最佳接触角. 关键词：     

倾斜均质表面上非等径液滴的聚合特性

对倾斜均匀表面上非等径液滴的聚合过程及特性进行了可视化实验研究,获得了液滴半径和表面倾角等参数对液滴聚合过程中液滴液桥半径、接触角和接触线变化特性的影响规律,进一步说明了倾斜表面上液滴聚合可以加快液滴的运动.     

Water droplets in a spherically confined nematic solvent: A numerical investigation

Recently, it was observed that water droplets suspended in a nematic liquid crystal form linear chains [Poulin et al., Science 275, 1770 (1997)]. The chaining occurs, e.g., in a large nematic drop with homeotropic boundary conditions at all the surfaces. Between each pair of water droplets a point defect in the liquid crystalline order was found in accordance with topological constraints. This point defect causes a repulsion between the water droplets. In our numerical investigation we limit ourselves to a chain of two droplets. For such a complex geometry we use the method of finite elements to minimize the Frank free energy. We confirm an experimental observation that the distance d of the point defect from the surface of a water droplet scales with the radius r of the droplet like .When the water droplets are moved apart, we find that the point defect does not stay in the middle between the droplets, but rather forms a dipole with one of them. This confirms a theoretical model for the chaining. Analogies to a second order phase transition are drawn. We also find the dipole when one water droplet is suspended in a bipolar nematic drop with two boojums, i.e., surface defects at the outer boundary. Finally, we present a configuration where two droplets repel each other without a defect between them. Received 11 December 1998     

Angular structure of radiation scattered by monolayer of polydisperse droplets of nematic liquid crystal

We considered light scattering by a polydisperse ensemble of droplets of a nematic liquid crystal. To model light scattering by a monolayer of polymer-dispersed spherical droplets of a nematic liquid crystal with cylindrical symmetry of its internal structure, we proposed a semianalytical modeling method. The method is based on interference approximation of the theory of multiple wave scattering, anomalous diffraction approximation, and effective-medium approximation. The method takes into account cooperative optical effects in concentrated, partially ordered layers and can be used to analyze the small-angle structure of the intensity of scattered radiation in relation to the concentration, size, polydispersity of liquid crystal droplets, orientation of their optical axes, and refractive indices of the liquid crystal and polymer. The obtained relations can be applied to solving direct and inverse problems of light scattering in composite liquid crystal materials using data of polarization measurements. We present graphical results of solving the direct problem for components of the polarization vector of scattered wave. These results illustrate the formation of an angular structure for monolayers with a high concentration of polydisperse droplets of the liquid crystal in the range of small scattering angles (0 < θ _s ≤ 8°).     

Wetting and superhydrophobic properties of PECVD grown hydrocarbon and fluorinated-hydrocarbon coatings

Wetting characteristics of micro-nanorough substrates of aluminum and smooth silicon substrates have been studied and compared by depositing hydrocarbon and fluorinated-hydrocarbon coatings via plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique using a mixture of Ar, CH₄ and C₂F₆ gases. The water contact angles on the hydrocarbon and fluorinated-hydrocarbon coatings deposited on silicon substrates were found to be 72° and 105°, respectively. However, the micro-nanorough aluminum substrates demonstrated superhydrophobic properties upon coatings with fluorinated-hydrocarbon providing a water contact angle of ∼165° and contact angle hysteresis below 2° with water drops rolling off from those surfaces while the same substrates showed contact angle of 135° with water drops sticking on those surfaces. The superhydrophobic properties is due to the high fluorine content in the fluorinated-hydrocarbon coatings of ∼36 at.%, as investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), by lowering the surface energy of the micro-nanorough aluminum substrates.     

Simulations of coulombic fission of charged inviscid drops

We present boundary-integral simulations of the evolution of critically charged droplets. For such droplets, small perturbations are unstable and eventually lead to the formation of a lemon-shaped drop with very sharp tips. For perfectly conducting drops, the tip forms a self-similar cone shape with a subtended angle identical to that of a Taylor cone, and quantities such as pressure and velocity diverge in time with power-law scaling. In contrast, when charge transport is described by a finite conductivity, we find that small progeny drops are formed at the tips, whose size decreases as the conductivity is increased. These small progeny drops are of nearly critical charge, and are precursors to the emission of a sustained flow of liquid from the tips as observed in experiments of isolated charged drops.     

A multicomponent multiphase lattice Boltzmann model with large liquid–gas density ratios for simulations of wetting phenomena

A multicomponent multiphase(MCMP) pseudopotential lattice Boltzmann(LB) model with large liquid–gas density ratios is proposed for simulating the wetting phenomena. In the proposed model, two layers of neighboring nodes are adopted to calculate the fluid–fluid cohesion force with higher isotropy order. In addition, the different-time-step method is employed to calculate the processes of particle propagation and collision for the two fluid components with a large pseudoparticle mass contrast. It is found that the spurious current is remarkably reduced by employing the higher isotropy order calculation of the fluid–fluid cohesion force. The maximum spurious current appearing at the phase interfaces is evidently influenced by the magnitudes of fluid–fluid and fluid–solid interaction strengths, but weakly affected by the time step ratio.The density ratio analyses show that the liquid–gas density ratio is dependent on both the fluid–fluid interaction strength and the time step ratio. For the liquid–gas flow simulations without solid phase, the maximum liquid–gas density ratio achieved by the present model is higher than 1000:1. However, the obtainable maximum liquid–gas density ratio in the solid–liquid–gas system is lower. Wetting phenomena of droplets contacting smooth/rough solid surfaces and the dynamic process of liquid movement in a capillary tube are simulated to validate the proposed model in different solid–liquid–gas coexisting systems. It is shown that the simulated intrinsic contact angles of droplets on smooth surfaces are in good agreement with those predicted by the constructed LB formula that is related to Young's equation. The apparent contact angles of droplets on rough surfaces compare reasonably well with the predictions of Cassie's law. For the simulation of liquid movement in a capillary tube, the linear relation between the liquid–gas interface position and simulation time is observed, which is identical to the analytical prediction. The simulation results regarding the wetting phenomena of droplets on smooth/rough surfaces and the dynamic process of liquid movement in the capillary tube demonstrate the quantitative capability of the proposed model.     

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.     

低压蒸汽滴状冷凝过程中液滴生长特性

研究了低压条件对滴状冷凝过程液滴生长特性的影响。首先,研究了超疏水表面上空气环境和蒸汽环境中附着液滴的接触角,发现蒸汽环境中的接触角比空气环境中的小,而蒸汽压力对接触角没有显著影响。第二,实验研究了冷凝过程中的液滴的生长周期和脱落尺寸,液滴的脱落半径随压力的降低而增大,生长周期也随之延长。第三,实验研究了液滴合并生长速率,并结合理论分析直接冷凝长大的生长速率,直接冷凝生长速率随压力的减小而减小,并随过冷度的减小而下降,而实验范围内合并生长速率不受压力影响。第四,根据滴状冷凝液滴分布的时间序列模型,分析了不同压力下液滴生长的临界尺寸,随着压力的降低,液滴生长方式的临界尺寸增大。     

Bond数变化对固壁液滴接触角的影响

本文利用微重力落塔实验研究了Bond数改变时,PTFE和铝板表面上正滴和倒滴接触角的动态变化。实验发现液滴接触角与Bond数的大小有关,当Bond数趋于0时,还与其放置状态有关。本文采用VOF方法对Bond数变化引起的液滴形状及内部流动变化进行二维数值模拟,结果显示液滴内部的流动控制着液滴的外形和接触角。