Related papers: Wetting Properties of Grain Boundaries in Solid He…
In part 1, we proposed a model of dynamics of wetting for slow movements near a contact line formed at the interface of two immiscible fluids and a solid when viscous dissipation remains bounded. The contact line is not a material line and…
Polycrystalline solids can exhibit material properties that differ significantly from those of equivalent single-crystal samples, in part, because of a spontaneous redistribution of mobile point defects into so-called space-charge regions…
When a granular bed is sheared by a fluid that flows above a critical limit, it undergoes a complex motion that varies along time: it can contain fluid- (bedload) and solid-like (creep) regions, being prone to strain hardening and, in case…
A mechanism of perfect plasticity under low homological temperatures has been suggested. According to this mechanism, the phenomenon under study is of critical nature. It connects with percolation transition in the net of grain boundaries…
During the spreading of a liquid over a solid substrate, the contact line can stay pinned at sharp edges until the contact angle exceeds a critical value. At (or sufficiently near) equilibrium, this is known as Gibbs' criterion. Here, we…
We have studied the fundamental process of hydrogen binding at interstitial, vacancy and grain boundary (GB) in palladium crystals using Density-Functional Theory. It showed that hydrogen prefers to occupy the octahedral interstitial site…
Twist-grain-boundary phases in smectics are the geometrical analogs of the Abrikosov flux lattice in superconductors. At large twist angles, the nonlinear elasticity is important in evaluating their energetics. We analytically construct the…
p-type Ce1.05Fe4Sb12.04 filled skutterudites with much improved thermoelectric properties have been synthesized by rapidly converting nearly amorphous ribbons into crystalline pellets under pressure. It is found that this process greatly…
We demonstrate insights into the three-dimensional structure of defects in graphene, in particular grain boundaries, obtained via a new approach from two transmission electron microscopy images recorded at different angles. The structure is…
The dihedral contact angles between interfaces in three-fluid-phase equilibria must be continuous functions of the bulk thermodynamic fields. This general argument, which we propose, predicts a nonwetting gap in the phase diagram,…
We report a detailed simulation and classical density functional theory study of the drying transition in a realistic model fluid at a smooth substrate. This transition (in which the contact angle $\theta\to 180^\circ$) is shown to be…
Gradient, chemically modified, flat surfaces enable directed transport of droplets. Calculation of apparent contact angles inherent for gradient surfaces is challenging even for atomically flat ones. Wetting of gradient, flat solid surfaces…
Wet granular aggregates are common precursors of construction materials, food, and health care products. The physical mechanisms involved in the mixing of dry grains with a wet substrate are not well understood and difficult to control.…
A quantum Monte Carlo approach, considering all the corrugation effects, was used to calculate the complete phase diagram of the second $^3$He layer adsorbed on graphite. We found that a first-layer triangular solid was in equilibrium with…
By mixing glass beads with a curable polymer we create a well-defined cohesive granular medium, held together by solidified, and hence elastic, capillary bridges. This material has a geometry similar to a wet packing of beads, but with an…
The three-phase contact line of a droplet on a smooth surface can be characterized by the Young-Dupr\'e equation. It relates the interfacial energies with the macroscopic contact angle $\theta_e$. On the mesoscale, wettability is modeled by…
We study the effect of an externally imposed oscillatory shear on the motion of a grain boundary that separates differently oriented domains of the lamellar phase of a diblock copolymer. A direct numerical solution of the Swift-Hohenberg…
We investigate the wetting properties of the simplest element of an array of random fibers: two rigid fibers crossing with an inclination angle and in contact with a droplet of a perfectly wetting liquid. We show experimentally that the…
We report on scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of grain boundaries in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. Grain boundaries showed a periodic structure and an enhanced charge density compared to the bare graphite surface. Two…
The twist-grain-boundary (TGB) phases, characterized by a periodic, helical arrangement of blocks made of polar smectic phases, SmAF and SmCF, have been discovered. They have been observed for rod-like molecules with a strong longitudinal…