An Electromechanical Model for Electrowetting

Author(s):  
Deng Huang ◽  
Fang Qian ◽  
Wenyao Zhang ◽  
Cunlu Zhao ◽  
Wenbo Li ◽  
...  

Abstract We present an electromechanical model for analysis of electrowetting by considering the balance between an electric force and a surface tension force acting on the contact line of three phases, namely the droplet (D) phase the substrate (S) phase and the ambiance (A) phase. We show that the electric force acting on the three-phase contact line generally is contributed by the Maxwell stresses at the ambiance-substrate (A-S) interface, the droplet-substrate (D-S) interface, and the droplet-ambiance (D-A) interface. It was identified that the change of contact angle in electrowetting is essentially a consequence of the modification of the electric force on the contact line. For a classical electrowetting configuration, we show that the electric force on the contact line is mainly due to the Maxwell stresses at the D-A interface. Then we examine comprehensively how the electric force on the contact line varies with the permittivity difference between A and S phases, the contact angle and size. It was found that our model agrees excellently with the classical Yong-Lippmann (Y-L) model when the permittivities of A and S phases are equal, while the difference between the two increases as the permittivity difference between A and S phases increases. The electric force increases with the increase of the contact angle for a given droplet size. Our model approaches the Y-L model with the increasing droplet size. The findings are complementary to the classical Y-L model and provide new insights into the electrowetting.

2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deng Huang ◽  
Fang Qian ◽  
Wenyao Zhang ◽  
Wenbo Li ◽  
Rui Chuan ◽  
...  

Abstract We present an electromechanical model for the analysis of electrowetting by considering the balance between an electric force and a surface tension force acting on the contact line of three phases, namely the droplet (D) phase, the substrate (S) phase, and the ambiance (A) phase. We show that the Maxwell stresses at the ambiance–substrate (A–S) interface, the droplet–substrate (D–S) interface, and the droplet–ambiance (D–A) interface induce an electric force on the three-phase contact line which is responsible for the modification of the apparent contact angle in electrowetting. For a classical electrowetting configuration with a flat substrate, we show that the electric force on the contact line (or the electrowetting number) is mainly due to the Maxwell stresses at the D–A interface. The model is validated by its excellent agreement with the classical Young-Lippmann (Y-L) model for sufficiently large droplets and comparable electric permittivities between A and S phases. Interestingly, our new model reveals that the finite size of droplet produces profound effects on the electrowetting that the electrowetting number becomes dependent on the permittivity of A phase and the equilibrium contact angle, which is in stark contrast to the Y-L model. The reasons for these remarkable effects are elaborated and clarified. The findings in the current study are complementary to the classical Y-L model and provide new insights into the electrowetting phenomenon.


Author(s):  
Neeharika Anantharaju ◽  
Mahesh Panchagnula ◽  
Wayne Kimsey ◽  
Sudhakar Neti ◽  
Svetlana Tatic-Lucic

The wettability of silicon surface hydrophobized using silanization reagents was studied. The advancing and receding contact angles were measured with the captive needle approach. In this approach, a drop under study was held on the hydrophobized surface with a fine needle immersed in it. The asymptotic advancing and receding angles were obtained by incrementally increasing the volume added and removed, respectively, until no change in angles was observed. The values were compared with the previously published results. Further, the wetting behavior of water droplets on periodically structured hydrophobic surfaces was investigated. The surfaces were prepared with the wet etching process and contain posts and holes of different sizes and void fractions. The surface geometry brought up a scope to study the Wenzel (filling of surface grooves) and Cassie (non filling of the surface grooves) theories and effects of surface geometry and roughness on the contact angle. Experimental data point to an anomalous behavior where the data does not obey either Wenzel or Cassie type phenomenology. This behavior is explained by an understanding of the contact line topography. The effect of contact line topography on the contact angle was thus parametrically studied. It was also inferred that, the contact angle increased with the increase in void fraction. The observations may serve as guidelines in designing surfaces with the desired wetting behavior.


Author(s):  
Magomed Pashevich Dokhov

The article uses the thermodynamics of interfacial phenomena to justify the fact that Young’s equations can correctly describe the three-phase equilibrium with any type of interatomic bonds. Wetting, adhesion, dissolution, surface adsorption, and other surface phenomena are important characteristics, whichlargely determine the quality and durability of materials, and the development of a number of production techniques, including welding, soldering, baking of metallic and non-metallic powders, etc. Therefore, it is important to study them.Using experimental data regarding surface energies of liquids (melts) and contact angles available in the literature, we calculated the surface energies of many solid metals, oxides, carbides, and other inorganic and organic materials without taking into account the amount of the interfacial energy at the solid-liquid (melt) interface. Some researchers assumed that in case of an acute contact angle the interfacial energy is low. Therefore, they neglected it and assumed it to be zero.Others knew that this value could not be measured, that is why they measured and calculated the difference between the surface energy of a solid and the interfacial energy of a solid and a liquid (melt), which is equal to the product of the surface energy of this liquid by the cosine of the contact angle. It is obvious that these methods of determining the surface energy based on such oversimplified assumptions result in poor accuracy.Through the use of examples this paper shows how the surface energies of solids were previously calculated and how the shortcomings of previous calculations can be corrected


2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 (1) ◽  
pp. 785-789
Author(s):  
Karen M. Koran ◽  
Albert D. Venosa ◽  
Christopher Luedeker

ABSTRACT The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a laboratory testing protocol to evaluate the effectiveness of surface washing agents (SWAs) to remove crude oil from a solid substrate. Variables were tested to determine their effect on SWA performance. The protocol was most sensitive to SWA:oil ratio (SOR) and rotational speed of mixing; it was not greatly affected by contact time, mixing time, or SWA concentration when total applied mass is constant. Interfacial tension and contact angle were measured for Prudhoe Bay Crude oil in the presence of six SWAs. SWAs were ranked based on 1) efficiency under the developed protocol, 2) ability to reduce interfacial tension and 3) ability to increase oil-substrate contact angle. In order for oil displacement to be thermodynamically favored, an SWA must have a lower interfacial tension with the substrate than does the oil. Using Young'S equation, the difference between the two solid-liquid interfacial tensions was calculated from the three phase contact angle and the interfacial tension between the two liquids. SWAs were ranked based on each of these criteria, and data were correlated with effectiveness under the protocol.


2018 ◽  
Vol 145 ◽  
pp. 03006
Author(s):  
Stanimir Iliev ◽  
Nina Pesheva ◽  
Pavel Iliev

In this work we present preliminary results from our numerical study of the shapes of a liquid meniscus in contact with doubly sinusoidal rough surfaces in Wenzel’s wetting regime. Using the full capillary model we obtain the advancing and the receding equilibrium meniscus shapes for a broad interval of surface roughness factors. The contact angle hysteresis is obtained when the three-phase contact line is located on one row (block case) or several rows (kink case) of physical defects. We find that depending on the mutual disposition of the contact line and the lattice of periodic defects, different stick-slip behaviors of the contact line depinning mechanism appear, leading to different values of the contact angle hysteresis.


1997 ◽  
Vol 334 ◽  
pp. 211-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
YULII D. SHIKHMURZAEV

A general mathematical model which describes the motion of an interface between immiscible viscous fluids along a smooth homogeneous solid surface is examined in the case of small capillary and Reynolds numbers. The model stems from a conclusion that the Young equation, σ1 cos θ = σ2 − σ3, which expresses the balance of tangential projection of the forces acting on the three-phase contact line in terms of the surface tensions σi and the contact angle θ, together with the well-established experimental fact that the dynamic contact angle deviates from the static one, imply that the surface tensions of contacting interfaces in the immediate vicinity of the contact line deviate from their equilibrium values when the contact line is moving. The same conclusion also follows from the experimentally observed kinematics of the flow, which indicates that liquid particles belonging to interfaces traverse the three-phase interaction zone (i.e. the ‘contact line’) in a finite time and become elements of another interface – hence their surface properties have to relax to new equilibrium values giving rise to the surface tension gradients in the neighbourhood of the moving contact line. The kinematic picture of the flow also suggests that the contact-line motion is only a particular case of a more general phenomenon – the process of interface formation or disappearance – and the corresponding mathematical model should be derived from first principles for this general process and then applied to wetting as well as to other relevant flows. In the present paper, the simplest theory which uses this approach is formulated and applied to the moving contact-line problem. The model describes the true kinematics of the flow so that it allows for the ‘splitting’ of the free surface at the contact line, the appearance of the surface tension gradients near the contact line and their influence upon the contact angle and the flow field. An analytical expression for the dependence of the dynamic contact angle on the contact-line speed and parameters characterizing properties of contacting media is derived and examined. The role of a ‘thin’ microscopic residual film formed by adsorbed molecules of the receding fluid is considered. The flow field in the vicinity of the contact line is analysed. The results are compared with experimental data obtained for different fluid/liquid/solid systems.


MRS Bulletin ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 747-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lichao Gao ◽  
Alexander Y. Fadeev ◽  
Thomas J. McCarthy

AbstractThe wettability of several superhydrophobic surfaces that were prepared recently by simple, mostly single-step methods is described and compared with the wettability of surfaces that are less hydrophobic. We explain why two length scales of topography can be important for controlling the hydrophobicity of some surfaces (the lotus effect). Contact-angle hysteresis (difference between the advancing, θA, and receding, θR, contact angles) is discussed and explained, particularly with regard to its contribution to water repellency. Perfect hydrophobicity (θA/θR = 180°/180°) and a method for distinguishing perfectly hydrophobic surfaces from those that are almost perfectly hydrophobic are described and discussed. The Wenzel and Cassie theories, both of which involve analysis of interfacial (solid/liquid) areas and not contact lines, are criticized. Each of these related topics is addressed from the perspective of the three-phase (solid/liquid/vapor) contact line and its dynamics. The energy barriers for movement of the three-phase contact line from one metastable state to another control contact-angle hysteresis and, thus, water repellency.


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