Line tension at wetting: interface displacement model beyond the gradient-squared approximation

H.T. Dobbs and J.O. Indekeu

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 1993, vol. 201, issue 4, 457-481

Abstract: We study the transition zone or contact line between a thin film and bulk liquid, and calculate the line tension τ, employing an interface displacement model equivalent to Derjaguin's and de Gennes' approach. We investigate the behaviour of τ in the limit that the contact angle ϑ tends to zero, approaching a wetting phase transition. Previous results for wetting and prewetting, derived in the gradient-squared approximation of the model, remain valid when the gradient is included to all orders. The interesting singular behaviour of τ at wetting is universal, due to the critical phenomena that have recently been found to underly first-order as well as continuous wetting transitions. Finally we critically review two contact-line instabilities that have been associated with contact-angle hysteresis, and propose an alternative physical interpretation.

Date: 1993
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:201:y:1993:i:4:p:457-481

DOI: 10.1016/0378-4371(93)90120-S

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