Limiting phenomena for the spreading of water on polymer films by electrowetting

M. Vallet, M. Vallade and B. Berge ()

The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 1999, vol. 11, issue 4, 583-591

Abstract: This paper is about fundamental limitations in electrowetting, used as a tool for spreading water solutions on hydrophobic surfaces, like the surface of a polymer film. Up to which point can an electric voltage decrease the contact angle? The first limitation comes when using pure water, above a threshold voltage, little droplets are emitted at the perimeter of the mother drop. We present an analysis of the drop contour line stability, involving competition between electrostatic and capillary forces, which is compatible with observations. The use of salted water solutions suppresses this instability, then one faces a second limitation: the evolution of the contact angle saturates before complete wetting. We show that this saturation is caused by ionisation of the air in the vicinity of the drop edge. We analyse the luminescence induced by gas ionization and measure the related electrical discharges. We explain how air ionization suppresses the driving force for electrowetting and how it induces the formation of an hydrophillic ring around the drop. Copyright Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 1999

Keywords: PACS. 68.45.Gd Wetting; 68.10.Cr Surface energy (surface tension; interface tension; angle of contact; etc.) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s100510051186 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eurphb:v:11:y:1999:i:4:p:583-591:10.1007/s100510051186

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10051

DOI: 10.1007/s100510051186

Access Statistics for this article

The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems is currently edited by P. Hänggi and Angel Rubio

More articles in The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems from Springer, EDP Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().