Maximum Overheating and Partial Wetting of Nonmelting Solid Surfaces

TL;DR

This paper develops a theory to determine the maximum overheating temperature of nonmelting solid surfaces and validates it with molecular dynamics simulations, linking thermodynamic and geometric surface properties.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework connecting maximum overheating to surface geometry and thermodynamics, supported by molecular dynamics simulations.

Findings

Maximum overheating temperature is theoretically identified.

Simulations show lack of spreading and partial wetting consistent with theory.

Surface properties like wetting angle relate to overheating limits.

Abstract

Surfaces which do not exhibit surface melting below the melting point (nonmelting surfaces) have been recently observed to sustain a very large amount of overheating. We present a theory which identifies a maximum overheating temperature, and relates it to other thermodynamical properties of the surface, in particular to geometrical properties more readily accessible to experiment. These are the angle of partial wetting, and the nmelting-induced faceting angle. We also present molecular dynamics simulations of a liquid droplet deposited on Al(111), showing lack of spreading and partial wetting in good agreement with the theory. PACS numbers: 68.10.Cr, 68.45.Gd, 61.50.Jr