Search results for "Wetting transition"
showing 10 items of 34 documents
Nanodroplets on a solid plane: wetting and spreading in a Monte Carlo simulation
2002
Abstract The wetting behavior and spreading dynamics of small polymer melt droplets in the course of transition from partial to complete wetting conditions on a flat structureless solid substrate have been studied by dynamic Monte Carlo simulation. From the density profiles of the drops we determine the contact angles at varying strength of the van der Waals surface forces in the whole interval of partial wetting. The validity of Young's equation is then tested whereby the surface tension of the melt/vapor interface is derived independently from interfacial fluctuation analysis, and the surface free energy of the melt at the substrate—from the anisotropy of the local pressure at the wall. T…
From dewetting to wetting molecular layers: C60 on CaCO3(10 ̅14) as a case study.
2012
We report the formation of extended molecular layers of C-60 molecules on a dielectric surface at room temperature. In sharp contrast to previous C-60 adsorption studies on prototypical ionic crystal surfaces, a wetting layer is obtained when choosing the calcite (CaCO3)(10 (1) over bar4) surface as a substrate. Non-contact atomic force microscopy data reveal an excellent match of the hexagonal lattice of the molecular layer with the unit cell dimension of CaCO3(10 (1) over bar4) in the [01 (1) over bar0] direction, while a lattice mismatch along the [(4) over bar(2) over bar 61] direction results in a large-scale moire modulation. Overall, a (2 x 15) wetting layer is obtained. The distinct…
Wetting of a short chain liquid on a brush: First-order and critical wetting transitions
2001
We investigate the wetting behaviour of short chains on a surface covered with a brush of end-grafted chains of the same architecture by a combination of self-consistent field calculations and liquid-state theory. The surface interacts with the monomers via (non-retarded) van der Waals interactions of strength A. At low grafting densities, we find first-order wetting transitions. The value of the effective Hamaker constant Awet > 0, at which the transition occurs, decreases and the strength of the first-order transition becomes weaker as we increase the grafting density. In an intermediate range of grafting densities, we encounter second-order wetting transitions at a vanishing Hamaker cons…
Hydrogen and helium films as model systems of wetting
1997
Optical experiments on the wetting properties of liquid 4He and molecular hydrogen are reviewed. Hydrogen films on noble metal surfaces serve as model systems for studying triple point wetting, a continuous transition between wetting and non-wetting. By means of optically excited surface plasmons, the adsorbed film thickness for temperatures around, and far below, the bulk melting temperature is measured, and the physical mechanisms responsible for the transition are elucidated. Possible applications for other experiments in pure and applied research are discussed. Thin films are droplets of liquid helium are studied on cesium surfaces, on which there is a first order wetting transition. Ou…
Wetting of polymer liquids: Monte Carlo simulations and self-consistent field calculations
2003
Using Monte Carlo simulations and self-consistent field (SCF) theory we study the surface and interface properties of a coarse grained off-lattice model. In the simulations we employ the grand canonical ensemble together with a reweighting scheme in order to measure surface and interface free energies and discuss various methods for accurately locating the wetting transition. In the SCF theory, we use a partial enumeration scheme to incorporate single-chain properties on all length scales and use a weighted density functional for the excess free energy. The results of various forms of the density functional are compared quantitatively to the simulation results. For the theory to be accurate…
MONTE CARLO METHODS FOR FIRST ORDER PHASE TRANSITIONS: SOME RECENT PROGRESS
1992
This brief review discusses methods to locate and characterize first order phase transitions, paying particular attention to finite size effects. In the first part, the order parameter probability distribution and its fourth-order cumulant is discussed for thermally driven first-order transitions (the 3-state Potts model in d=3 dimensions is treated as an example). First-order transitions are characterized by a minimum of the cumulant, which gets very deep for large enough systems. In the second part, we discuss how to locate first order phase boundaries ending in a critical point in a large parameter space. As an example, the study of the unmixing transition of asymmetric polymer mixtures…
Critical wetting in the square Ising model with a boundary field
1990
The Ising square lattice with nearest-neighbor exchangeJ>0 and a free surface at which a boundary magnetic fieldH1 acts has a second-order wetting transition. We study the surface excess magnetization and the susceptibility ofL×M lattices by Monte Carlo simulation and probe the critical behavior of this wetting transition, applying finite-size scaling methods. For the cases studied, the results are not consistent with the presumably exactly known values of the critical exponents, because the asymptotic critical region has not yet been reached. Implication of our results for critical wetting in three dimensions and for the application of the present model to adsorbed wetting layers at surfac…
Numerical evidence of hyperscaling violation in wetting transitions of the random-bond Ising model in d = 2 dimensions
2017
We performed extensive simulations of the random-bond Ising model confined between walls where competitive surface fields act. By properly taking the thermodynamic limit we unambiguously determined wetting transition points of the system, as extrapolation of localization-delocalization transitions of the interface between domains of different orientation driven by the respective fields. The finite-size scaling theory for wetting with short-range fields establishes that the average magnetization of the sample, with critical exponent β, is the proper order parameter for the study of wetting. While the hyperscaling relationship given by γ+2β=ν +ν requires β=1/2 (γ=4, ν =3, and ν =2), the therm…
Properties of the interface in the confined Ising magnet with competing surface fields
2007
Abstract A two-dimensional magnetic Ising system confined in an L × D geometry ( L ⪡ D ) in the presence of competing magnetic fields (h) acting at opposite walls along the D -direction, exhibits an interface between domains of different orientation that run parallel to the walls. In the limit L → ∞ , this interface undergoes a wetting transition that occurs at the critical curve T w ( h ) , so that for T T w ( h ) such an interface is bound to the walls, while for T w ( h ) ⩽ T T cb the interface is freely fluctuating around the center of the film, where T cb is the bulk critical temperature. By considering both short- and long-range magnetic fields acting at the walls, we study the diverg…
Interface localisation-delocalisation transition in a symmetric polymer blend: a finite-size scaling Monte Carlo study
2001
Using extensive Monte Carlo simulations we study the phase diagram of a symmetric binary (AB) polymer blend confined into a thin film as a function of the film thickness D. The monomer-wall interactions are short ranged and antisymmetric, i.e, the left wall attracts the A-component of the mixture with the same strength as the right wall the B-component, and give rise to a first order wetting transition in a semi-infinite geometry. The phase diagram and the crossover between different critical behaviors is explored. For large film thicknesses we find a first order interface localisation/delocalisation transition and the phase diagram comprises two critical points, which are the finite film w…