Wetting films on chemically heterogeneous substrates
C. Bauer, S. Dietrich
TL;DR
This paper uses microscopic density functional theory to study the shape and behavior of thin wetting films on chemically heterogeneous surfaces, with implications for microfluidic device design.
Contribution
It introduces a method to analyze wetting films on substrates with arbitrary chemical heterogeneities, focusing on single steps and stripes.
Findings
Guidance of liquids by chemical microchannels is feasible.
A general theoretical approach for complex chemical structures is proposed.
Insights into wetting behavior on heterogeneous substrates are provided.
Abstract
Based on a microscopic density functional theory we investigate the morphology of thin liquidlike wetting films adsorbed on substrates endowed with well-defined chemical heterogeneities. As paradigmatic cases we focus on a single chemical step and on a single stripe. In view of applications in microfluidics the accuracy of guiding liquids by chemical microchannels is discussed. Finally we give a general prescription of how to investigate theoretically the wetting properties of substrates with arbitrary chemical structures.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.