Related papers: Critical Thickness in Dewetting Films
The stability of thin liquid coatings is of fundamental interest in every- day life. Homogeneous and non-volatile liquid coatings may dewet either by heterogeneous nucleation, thermal nucleation, or spinodal dewetting. Wetting and dewetting…
Liquid films of nanometric thickness are prone to spinodal dewetting driven by disjoining pressure, meaning that a non-wetting liquid film of homogeneous thickness in the range of tens of nanometers will spontaneously break into droplets.…
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 instability, dynamics and morphological transitions of patterns in thin liquid films on periodic striped surfaces (consisting of alternating less and more wettable stripes) are investigated based on 3-D nonlinear simulations that…
The study of the dewetting of very thin polymer films has recently revealed many unexpected features (e.g. unusual rim morphologies and front velocities) which have been the focus of several theoretical models. Surprisingly, the most…
Thin-film dewetting is classically governed by an adhesion-mediated spinodal instability in which curvature-driven diffusion controls post-rupture coarsening. We show that internal activity fundamentally restructures this instability. Using…
Dewetting of ultra-thin polymer films near the glass transition exhibits unexpected front morphologies [G. Reiter, Phys. Rev. Lett., 87, 186101 (2001)]. We present here the first theoretical attempt to understand these features, focusing on…
A surface instability is reported in thin nematic films of 5CB and 8CB, occurring near the nematic--isotropic phase transition. Although this instability leads to patterns reminiscent of spinodal dewetting, we show that it is actually based…
Dewetting of thin polystyrene films deposited onto silicone wafers at temperatures close to the glass transition exhibits unusual dynamics and front morphologies. Here, we present a new theoretical approach of these phenomena taking into…
A transient surface instability is reported in thin nematic films of 5CB and 8CB, occurring near the nematic-isotropic phase transition. Although this instability leads to patterns reminiscent of spinodal dewetting, we show that it is…
We study the dewetting of liquid films capped by a thin elastomeric layer. When the tension in the elastomer is isotropic, circular holes grow at a rate which decreases with increasing tension. The morphology of holes and rim stability can…
Plants and insects use slender conical structures to transport and collect small droplets, which are propelled along the conical structures due to capillary action. These droplets can deposit a fluid film during their motion, but despite…
This study reveals the influence of the surface energy and solid/liquid boundary condition on the breakup mechanism of dewetting ultra-thin polymer films. Using silane self-assembled monolayers, SiO$_2$ substrates are rendered hydrophobic…
Numerical simulations of spontaneous dewetting of non-slipping, variable viscosity unstable thin liquid films on homogeneous substrates reveal the existence of sub-spinodal lengthscales through formation of satellite holes, a marker of…
We have studied the breakup and subsequent fluid flow in very thin films of partially wetting liquid on solid substrates, using molecular dynamics simulations. The liquid is made of short chain molecules interacting with Lennard-Jones…
Stability of thin lubricating fluid coated slippery surfaces depends on the surface energy of the underlying solid surface. High energy solid surfaces, coated with thin lubricating oil, lead to the dewetting of the oil films upon depositing…
Ultrathin polymer films on non-wettable substrates display dynamic features which have been attributed to either viscoelastic or slip effects. Here we show that in the weak and strong slip regime effects of viscoelastic relaxation are…
We investigate the wave-optical light scattering properties of deformed thin circular films of constant thickness using the discrete-dipole approximation. Effects on the intensity distribution of the scattered light due to different…
Ultrathin polymer films that are produced e.g. by spin-coating are believed to be stressed since polymers are 'frozen in' into out-of-equilibrium configurations during this process. In the framework of a viscoelastic thin film model, we…
We study a model for a thin liquid film dewetting from a periodic heterogeneous substrate (template). The amplitude and periodicity of a striped template heterogeneity necessary to obtain a stable periodic stripe pattern, i.e. pinning, are…