Related papers: Electrowetting of a nano-suspension on a soft soli…
A liquid drop impacting a dry solid surface with sufficient kinetic energy will splash, breaking apart into numerous secondary droplets. This phenomenon shows many similarities to forced wetting, including the entrainment of air at the…
Molecular dynamics simulations were employed to study the wetting behavior of nanoscale aqueous hydrophilic and hydrophobic Imidazolium based ionic liquid (IL) droplets on a solid graphite substrate subjected to the perpendicular electric…
Biomolecules, such as proteins and RNAs, can phase separate in the cytoplasm of cells to form biomolecular condensates. Such condensates are liquid-like droplets that can wet biological surfaces such as membranes. Many molecules that…
The influence of the external pressure and surface energy on the wetting transition at nanotextured interfaces is studied using molecular dynamics and continuum simulations. The surface roughness of the composite interface is introduced via…
From hydrogels and plastics to liquid crystals, soft solids cover a wide array of synthetic and biological materials that play key enabling roles in advanced technologies such as 3D printing, soft robotics, wearable electronics,…
Low voltage electrowetting on dielectrics on substrates with thin layer of lubricating fluid to reduce contact angle hysteresis is reported here. On smooth and homogeneous solid surfaces, it is extremely difficult to reduce contact angle…
A droplet can deform a soft substrate due to capillary forces when they are in contact. We study the static deformation of a soft solid layer coated on a rigid cylindrical fiber when an axisymmetric barrel-shaped droplet is embracing it. We…
Liquid droplets usually wet smooth and homogeneous substrates isotropically. Recent research works have revealed that droplets sit, slide and spread anisotropically on uniaxially stretched soft substrates, showing an enhanced wettability…
Wettability is the affinity of a liquid for a solid surface. For energetic reasons, macroscopic drops of liquid are nearly spherical away from interfaces with solids, and any local deformations due to molecular-scale surface interactions…
We study the interaction of small hydrophobic particles on the surface of an ultra-soft elastic gel, in which a small amount of elasticity of the medium balances the weights of the particles. The excess energy of the surface of the deformed…
We report an experimental investigation of the spontaneous motion of liquid droplets on soft gels with a crosslinking gradient. By systematically adjusting the spatial difference in crosslinking density, we observed that millimeter-sized…
Electrowetting has a potential to realize stand-alone point-of-care (POC) devices. Here we report droplet-migration characteristics on oil-infused electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) substrates. We prepare sparse micropillars to retain the…
The properties of suspensions of fine particles in dielectric liquid (electrorheological fluids) subjected to an electric field lead to a drastic change of the apparent viscosity of the fluid. For high applied fields (~ 3-5 kV/mm) the…
The stability of thin liquid films on a surface depends on the excess free energy of the system involving various short-range and long-range interactions. In an unstable condition, thin liquid films may dewet into multiple small-sized…
The spreading of liquid drops on soft substrates is extremely slow, owing to strong viscoelastic dissipation inside the solid. A detailed understanding of the spreading dynamics has remained elusive, partly owing to the difficulty in…
Droplet interactions with solid surfaces are fundamental to natural phenomena and hold significant commercial relevance across diverse applications. While the impingement dynamics of conventional aqueous droplets on solid substrates are…
Ferrofluids are liquids exhibiting remarkably strong response to magnetic fields, which leads to fascinating properties useful in various applications. Understanding the wetting properties and spreading of ferrofluids is important for their…
The interfacial mechanics of soft elastic networks play a central role in biological and technological contexts. Yet, effects of solid capillarity have remained controversial, primarily due to the strain-dependent surface energy. Here we…
The understanding of the spreading of liquids on solid surfaces is an important challenge for contemporary physics. Today, the motion of the contact line formed at the intersection of two immiscible fluids and a solid is still subject to…
Nanodroplets residing near wedges or edges of solid substrates exhibit a disjoining pressure induced dynamics. Our nanoscale hydrodynamic calculations reveal that non-volatile droplets are attracted or repelled from edges or wedges…