Orientation of a nanocylinder at a fluid interface

A nanocylinder placed on a fluid interface can assume an end-on or side-on orientation, or it can immerse itself in the surrounding bulk phases. Any of these orientations can satisfy a mechanical force balance when the particle is small enough that gravitational effects are negligible. The orientation is determined by the surface energies of the fluid-solid, fluid-vapor, and vapor-solid surfaces. A comparison of the energy of each state allows phase diagrams to be defined in terms of the scaled aspect ratio x=2L/pir and the contact angle thetao, where L and r denote the nanocylinder length and radius, respectively. Line tension can also influence the orientations by changing the equilibrium contact angle theta and by increasing the energetic cost of the contact line. Phase diagrams accounting for positive line tensions Sigma are also constructed. These phase diagrams can be divided into two classes. In the first, over some range of x and Sigma, nanocylinders can be driven from side-on to end-on orientations with increasing Sigma. This transition terminates at a triple point where the side-on, end-on, and immersed energies are the same. In the second class, there is no triple point and, for a range of Sigma values, nanocylinders of all aspect ratios x prefer an end-on orientation. In all cases, for high enough Sigma, line tension drives a wetting transition similar to that already noted in the literature for spherical particles. The zero line tension predictions are compared favorably to experiment, in which functionalized gold nanowires made by template synthesis are spread at aqueous-gas interfaces, immobilized using a gel-fixation technique, and observed by scanning electron microscopy. The small aspect ratio particles (disks) were in an end-on configuration, while the longer nanowires were in a side-on orientation, in agreement with the theory.     

Instability of the Contact Line between Three Fluid Phases during Mass Transfer Processes

The movable contact line between two liquids and a gas phase sensitively reacts to small disturbances in the force equilibrium. The shape of the contact line and the adjoining interfaces is determined by the interface and surface tensions, the contact angles, the density differences (hydrostatic pressure), and the Laplace capillary pressure. When these change, the three-phase contact line can deform and even become unstable. Interface and surface tension depend on the concentration and temperature. During mass transport processes (concentration changes) various forms of the instability of the contact line can be observed: -Oscillations of a circular contact line (regular expansion and reduction); -Single deformations (bulges) which quickly disappear again; -Deformations (bulges) which run along the boundary line; -Periodically generated and damped deformations with different modes. The behavior of the three-phase contact line is of practical importance for coalescence processes and for spontaneous emulsification on liquid surfaces. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Contact angle interpretation in terms of solid surface tension

Recent experimental (low-rate) dynamic contact angles for 14 solid surfaces are interpreted in terms of their solid surface tensions. Universality of these experimental contact angle patterns is illustrated; other reasons that can cause data to deviate from the patterns are discussed. It is found that surface tension component approaches do not reflect physical reality. Assuming solid surface tension is constant for one and the same solid surface, experimental contact angle patterns are employed to deduce a functional relationship to be used in conjunction with the Young equation to determine solid surface tensions. The explicit form of such a relation is obtained by modifying Berthelot’s rule together with experimental data; essentially constant solid surface tension values are obtained, independent of liquid surface tension and molecular structure. A new combining rule is also derived based on an expression similar to one used in molecular theory; such a combining rule should allow a better understanding of the molecular interactions between unlike solid–liquid pairs.     

Mean-field density-functional model of a second-order wetting transition

First- and second-order wetting transitions are contrasted. A mean-field density-functional model that leads to a second-order transition is introduced. The way in which it differs from an earlier, otherwise similar model in which the transition is first order is noted. The interfacial and line tensions in the model are obtained numerically and their behavior on approach to the transition is determined. The spatial variation of the model's densities in the neighborhood of the contact line near the wetting transition is also found and seen to be characteristically different at a second-order transition from what it is at a first-order transition. The results for the line tension and for the spatial variation of the densities are in accord with those from an earlier interface-displacement model of the same phenomena.     

Simultaneous measurement of contact angle and surface tension using axisymmetric drop-shape analysis-no apex (ADSA-NA)

Axisymmetric drop-shape analysis-no apex (ADSA-NA) is a recent drop-shape method that allows the simultaneous measurement of contact angles and surface tensions of drop configurations without an apex (i.e., a sessile drop with a capillary protruding into the drop). Although ADSA-NA significantly enhanced the accuracy of contact angle and surface tension measurements compared to that of original ADSA using a drop with an apex, it is still not as accurate as a surface tension measurement using a pendant drop suspended from a holder. In this article, the computational and experimental aspects of ADSA-NA were scrutinized to improve the accuracy of the simultaneous measurement of surface tensions and contact angles. It was found that the results are relatively insensitive to different optimization methods and edge detectors. The precision of contact angle measurement was enhanced by improving the location of the contact points of the liquid meniscus with the solid substrate to subpixel resolution. To optimize the experimental design, the capillary was replaced with an inverted sharp-edged pedestal, or holder, to control the drop height and to ensure the axisymmetry of the drops. It was shown that the drop height is the most important experimental parameter affecting the accuracy of the surface tension measurement, and larger drop heights yield lower surface tension errors. It is suggested that a minimum nondimensional drop height (drop height divided by capillary length) of 1.7 is required to reach an error of less than 0.2 mJ/m(2) for the measured surface tension. As an example, the surface tension of water was measured to be 72.46 ± 0.04 at 24 °C by ADSA-NA, compared to 72.39 ± 0.01 mJ/m(2) obtained with pendant drop experiments.     

Estimation of line tension and contact angle from heterogeneous nucleation experimental data

Using the classical nucleation theory corrected with line tension and experimental data of heterogeneous nucleation of n-nonane, n-propanol, and their mixture on silver particles of three different sizes, the authors were able to estimate the line tensions and the microscopic contact angles for the above mentioned systems. To do this they applied generalized Young's equation for the line tension and calculated the interfacial tensions using Li and Neumann's equation [Adv. Colloid Interface Sci. 39, 299 (1992)]. It has been found that, for both unary and binary systems, the line tension is negative and the resulting microscopic contact angle derived from experimental nucleation data is most of the time larger than the macroscopic one. This is in contrast to earlier studies where the influence of line tension has not been accounted for. The values of the three phase contact line tension obtained in this way are of the same order of magnitude as the estimations for other systems reported in literature. The line tension effect also decreases considerably the nucleation barrier.     

Size-dependent lens angles for small oil lenses on water

Line tension is the excess energy associated with unit length of a three-phase contact line and it has long been of interest, in part because if sufficiently large, it can affect various processes of industrial and biological importance. Most recently, interest has centred on the magnitude and sign of experimentally determined values. Reported line tensions in systems with liquid alkanes in contact with aqueous phases include values from about +10⁻¹⁰ to 10⁻⁹ N on the one hand, and −10⁻⁶ N on the other. If the actual values of line tension lie close to the lower end of the spectrum quoted above, the influence on many systems of interest will be negligible. The higher values, however, could lead to pronounced effects. A study to determine line tension in the three-phase contact line around lenses of dodecane resting on a water subphase is presented. The method involves measuring, by interferometry, the variation of lens angle with the contact line radius. In order to bring the angles into a convenient range for measurement (around 2°), small amounts of dodecanol (ca. 2 mmol dm⁻³) have been added to the dodecane. The line tension is found to be +1.6±0.3×10⁻¹¹ N. The magnitude and sign of the line tension is discussed in terms of surface forces.     

The surface tension of polymer liquids

A brief review of the surface tension of polymer liquids is presented. A strong emphasis is placed on recent measurements of surface tensions of homologous liquid series up to high-molecular-weight polymers, and the thermodynamic liquid properties of these same homologous series obtained from sources such as pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) data. The accuracy and limitations of the thermodynamic information which are used as input to many of the theories applied to the surface properties of polymer molecules are discussed. By scaling the surface tension data using a true measure of the cohesive energy density of the liquid state, we can clearly observe the entropic contribution to the surface tension caused by the conformational restriction of a large molecule at the liquid-vapor interface. The scaling implies the existence of a corresponding states principle for both polymer liquids and for low-molecular-weight liquids. The ramifications of the existence of a corresponding states principle for the surface tension of polymer melts are discussed. One consequence of the corresponding states principle is that it allows us to use surface tension measurements to compute the cohesive energy density of polymer melts using PVT data.     

Contact line motion in confined liquid-gas systems: Slip versus phase transition

In two-phase flows, the interface intervening between the two fluid phases intersects the solid wall at the contact line. A classical problem in continuum fluid mechanics is the incompatibility between the moving contact line and the no-slip boundary condition, as the latter leads to a nonintegrable stress singularity. Recently, various diffuse-interface models have been proposed to explain the contact line motion using mechanisms missing from the sharp-interface treatments in fluid mechanics. In one-component two-phase (liquid-gas) systems, the contact line can move through the mass transport across the interface while in two-component (binary) fluids, the contact line can move through diffusive transport across the interface. While these mechanisms alone suffice to remove the stress singularity, the role of fluid slip at solid surface needs to be taken into account as well. In this paper, we apply the diffuse-interface modeling to the study of contact line motion in one-component liquid-gas systems, with the fluid slip fully taken into account. The dynamic van der Waals theory has been presented for one-component fluids, capable of describing the two-phase hydrodynamics involving the liquid-gas transition [A. Onuki, Phys. Rev. E 75, 036304 (2007)]. This theory assumes the local equilibrium condition at the solid surface for density and also the no-slip boundary condition for velocity. We use its hydrodynamic equations to describe the continuum hydrodynamics in the bulk region and derive the more general boundary conditions by introducing additional dissipative processes at the fluid-solid interface. The positive definiteness of entropy production rate is the guiding principle of our derivation. Numerical simulations based on a finite-difference algorithm have been carried out to investigate the dynamic effects of the newly derived boundary conditions, showing that the contact line can move through both phase transition and slip, with their relative contributions determined by a competition between the two coexisting mechanisms in terms of entropy production. At temperatures very close to the critical temperature, the phase transition is the dominant mechanism, for the liquid-gas interface is wide and the density ratio is close to 1. At low temperatures, the slip effect shows up as the slip length is gradually increased. The observed competition can be interpreted by the Onsager principle of minimum entropy production.     

Local thermodynamic derivation of Young's equation

A derivation of Young's equation based on the energy balance near the contact line is presented. Our proposal is rigorous and avoids the errors identified in the usual local derivation. It is valid under very general conditions (for any geometry, in a gravitational field and for compressive fluids). Deviations of the contact angle from Young's equation are discussed in several cases: surfaces of high curvature and line tension. Finally, the relationship between surface tensions and surface energies comes as an additional, natural result. Our derivation also provides a new physical insight into the equilibrium of forces acting near the contact line. Its local character makes the recourse to integral analysis unnecessary, which results in a great simplification when compared to other general treatments.     

Adhesion and wetting in an aqueous environment: theoretical assessment of sensitivity to the solid surface energy

The sensitivity of contact angles in an aqueous environment to the surface energy of the solid is discussed. It is demonstrated that this sensitivity is much higher in an aqueous than in a vapor environment. The Girifalco-Good equation, in combination with the Owens-Wendt equation, is used for the approximate demonstrations. It is shown that the transition from complete wetting to complete dewetting by the aqueous phase in a solid-liquid-liquid system occurs over a much narrower range of the surface energy of the solid than in a solid-liquid-vapor system. It is also demonstrated that the contact angle may be extremely sensitive to small variations in the relationship between surface tensions and the corresponding interfacial tension.     

Disjoining pressure and the film-height-dependent surface tension of thin liquid films: New insight from capillary wave fluctuations

In this paper we review simulation and experimental studies of thermal capillary wave fluctuations as an ideal means for probing the underlying disjoining pressure and surface tensions, and more generally, fine details of the Interfacial Hamiltonian Model. We discuss recent simulation results that reveal a film-height-dependent surface tension not accounted for in the classical Interfacial Hamiltonian Model. We show how this observation may be explained bottom-up from sound principles of statistical thermodynamics and discuss some of its implications.     

Statics of polymer droplets on deformable surfaces

The equilibrium properties of polymer droplets on a soft deformable surface are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations of a bead-spring model. The surface consists of a polymer brush with irreversibly end-tethered linear homopolymer chains onto a flat solid substrate. We tune the softness of the surface by varying the grafting density. Droplets are comprised of bead-spring polymers of various chain lengths. First, both systems, brush and polymer liquid, are studied independently in order to determine their static and dynamic properties. In particular, using a numerical implementation of an AFM experiment, we measure the shear modulus of the brush surface and compare the results to theoretical predictions. Then, we study the wetting behavior of polymer droplets with different surface/drop compatibility and on substrates that differ in softness. Density profiles reveal, under certain conditions, the formation of a wetting ridge beneath the three-phase contact line. Cap-shaped droplets and cylindrical droplets are also compared to estimate the effect of the line tension with respect to the droplet size. Finally, the results of the simulations are compared to a phenomenological free-energy calculation that accounts for the surface tensions and the compliance of the soft substrate. Depending on the surface/drop compatibility, surface softness, and drop size, a transition between two regimes is observed: from one where the drop surface energy balances the adhesion with the surface, which is the classical Young-Dupre? wetting regime, to another one where a coupling occurs between adhesion, droplet and surface elastic energies.     

Pore formation in fluctuating membranes

We study the nucleation of a single pore in a fluctuating lipid membrane, specifically taking into account the membrane fluctuations, as well as the shape fluctuations of the pore. For large enough pores, the nucleation free energy is well-described by shifts in the effective membrane surface tension and the pore line tension. Using our framework, we derive the stability criteria for the various pore formation regimes. In addition to the well-known large-tension regime from the classical nucleation theory of pores, we also find a low-tension regime in which the effective line and surface tensions can change sign from their bare values. The latter scenario takes place at sufficiently high temperatures, where the opening of a stable pore of finite size is entropically favorable.     

Generalized theory of capillarity for axisymmetric menisci

A high-curvature generalization of the Laplace equation of capillarity and the Young equation of capillarity (including line tension) is developed for an axisymmetric solid-liquid-fluid system. The most general expressions for the Laplace and Young equations do not assume a particular form for the specific surface free energy. However, when a particular form, i.e., ω^(A) = γ^(A)_∞+ C_JJ+ C_kK, which is related to Gibbs' expression for a highly curved menisci,¹ is assumed to hold for the specific surface free energy then we are able to recover the expected simplified form of the Laplace equation. The corresponding high-curvature Young equation includes a couple which balances the surface moments at the contact line. Unfortunately, the effect of this couple could be confused with the effect of line tension in experiments which attempt to measure the dependence of the contact angle on the contact line radius.     

Synthesis and properties of new functionalized guanidinium based ionic liquids as non-toxic versatile organic materials

Functionalized guanidinium ionic liquids as a new class of versatile organic materials have been developed. Guanidinium salts containing olefinic functionalities have been prepared and completely characterized. In order to illustrate the versatility of olefinic units, they were brominated and some bromine-containing ionic liquids have been obtained. Relevant physico-chemical properties of the new synthesized salts were evaluated including their melting points, glass transition temperatures, miscibilities, densities, surface tensions and contact angles with glass and Teflon surfaces. Additionally toxicity studies were performed using the human colon carcinoma CaCo-2 cell line. Several new functionalized guanidinium based ILs showed high densities, low contact angles with Teflon, low surface tensions as well as a non-toxic behaviour.     

Silicon-Modified Carbohydrate Surfactants V: The Wetting Behaviour of Low-Molecular-Weight Siloxane,Carbosilane, Silane and Polysilane Precursors on Low-Energy Surfaces

The surface tensions, wetting tensions, contact angles and solid/liquid interfacial tensions of defined siloxanes as well as those of analogous carbosilanes, polysilanes and neopentyl substituted silanes were determined. The wetting experiments were carried out on a glass plate coated with perfluoroalkyl methacrylate (FC 722^®). The siloxanes possess the lowest surface tensions. Due to the presence of oxygen atoms in the siloxane backbone, a donor–acceptor portion (γ^+/−_lv) of the surface tension of about 1–2 mN/m was determined. The solid/liquid interfacial tension also contains a donor–acceptor portion (γ^+/−_sl). Its value is almost identical to that of γ^+/−_lv. The γ^+/−_sl differences between individual molecules of the same surface tension are responsible for contact angle differences of up to 4°. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental Study on Contact Angle Patterns: Liquid Surface Tensions Less Than Solid Surface Tensions

The interpretation of contact angles in terms of solid surface tensions is not trivial. In the past, we and others have postulated that contact angles should be measured with liquid of surface tension larger than the anticipated solid surface tension, i.e., gamma(lv)>gamma(sv). This has recently been disputed. It is also not entirely obvious how to proceed experimentally since gamma(sv) is not known initially. Typically, one starts with a liquid of high gamma(lv) (such as water) and goes lower. We have stopped in the past when the contact angles became small. A question arises as to what would happen if we would go on. Contact angles of liquids with gamma(lv) less than or near gamma(sv) were measured on eight polymer-coated solid surfaces. The experimental contact angle patterns for gamma(lv)gamma(sv) were compared. Results suggest that contact angle interpretation in terms of solid surface tensions requires contact angles to be measured for gamma(lv)>gamma(sv) because the Young equation is not applicable for gamma(lv)相似文献