A mechanical model for liquid nanolayers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a mechanical model based on a square-gradient functional to describe the structure and behavior of very thin liquid nanolayers near solid surfaces, accounting for heterogeneity and intermolecular forces.

Contribution

It develops a novel liquid density functional model that accurately captures nanolayer structures and extends lubrication approximations to nanoscale thin films.

Findings

The model effectively describes nanolayer structures near solid walls.

It enables analysis of liquid motion in nanolayers.

The approach generalizes long wave lubrication theory to nanoscale films.

Abstract

Liquids in contact with solids are submitted to intermolecular forces making liquids heterogeneous and stress tensors are not any more spherical as in homogeneous bulks. The aim of this article is to show that a square-gradient functional representing liquid-vapor interface free energy corrected with a liquid density functional at solid surfaces is a well adapted model to study structures of very thin nanofilms near solid walls. This result makes it possible to study the motions of liquids in nanolayers and to generalize the approximation of lubrication in long wave hypothesis.