Wetting dynamics: a review
CIC nanoGUNE Seminars
- Speaker
-
Joël de Coninck, LPSI, University of Mons, Belgium
- When
-
2016/03/07
12:00 - Place
- nanoGUNE seminar room, Tolosa Hiribidea 76, Donostia - San Sebastian
- Add to calendar
-
iCal
Wetting has a very long and fascinating history. The solid-liquid interactions
are mainly physical, but they are a result of the specific chemistry at the
interface. The flow of the liquids in contact with a solid is studied by fluid
mechanics, and the solids are described in terms of material science. For
about 200 years the basic equations derived from macroscopic arguments and
describing the equilibrium configuration of partially wetting liquids have
been known, due to Young and Laplace. And starting about 50 years ago, the
dynamics of wetting became of central interest. Nowadays, still fundamental
question remain unresolved. Most of the open questions find their origin in
the fact that wetting depends, to a large extent, on the microscopic
characteristics of the considered materials. Young's equation, for example,
has been validated at the microscopic scale only recently. Apart from the
fundamental problem of whether a given solid is wetted by a given liquid, many
of the practical applications require the precise knowledge of the rates of
wetting processes. Particularly, one is often interested to know how fast a
liquid can wet a given area of a solid surface. The talk will be devoted to a
general review of the mechanisms controlling the dynamics of wetting combining
simulations, theories and experimental results.