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Controlling the dewetting morphologies of thin liquid films by switchable substrates

S. Zitz ^1,2,3,*, A. Scagliarini^4,5,†, and J. Harting ^1,6,‡

¹Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Fürther Strasse 248, D-90429 Nürnberg, Germany
²Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Fürther Straße 248, D-90429 Nürnberg, Germany
³IMFUFA, Department of Science and Environment, Roskilde University, Postbox 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
⁴Institute for Applied Mathematics “M. Picone” (IAC), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via dei Taurini 19, I-00185 Rome, Italy
⁵INFN, Sezione Roma “Tor Vergata”, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Rome, Italy
⁶Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Fürther Straße 248, D-90429 Nürnberg, Germany

^*zitz@ruc.dk
^†andrea.scagliarini@cnr.it
^‡j.harting@fz-juelich.de

Phys. Rev. Fluids 8, L122001 – Published 19 December, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.8.L122001

Abstract

Switchable and adaptive substrates emerged as valuable tools for controlling wetting and actuation of droplet motion. Here, we report a computational study of the dynamics of an unstable thin liquid film deposited on a switchable substrate, modeled with a space- and time-varying contact angle. For a sufficiently large rate of wettability variation, a topological transition appears. Instead of breaking up into droplets, as expected for a substrate with multiple wetting minima, a metastable rivulet state emerges. A criterion discriminating whether or not rivulets occur is identified in terms of a single dimensionless parameter. Finally, we show and derive theoretically how the film rupture times, droplet shape, and rivulet lifetime depend on the pattern wavelength and speed.

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References (63)

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Controlling the dewetting morphologies of thin liquid films by switchable substrates

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