Filling and wetting transitions at grooved substrates

Abstract

The wetting and filling properties of a fluid adsorbed on a solid grooved substrate are studied by means of a microscopic density functional theory. The grooved substrates are modelled using a solid slab, interacting with the fluid particles via long-range dispersion forces, to which a one-dimensional array of infinitely long rectangular grooves is sculpted. By investigating the effect of the groove periodicity and the width of the grooves and the ridges, a rich variety of different wetting morphologies is found. In particular, we show that for a saturated ambient gas, the adsorbent can occur in one of four wetting states characterised by i) empty grooves, ii) filled grooves, iii) a formation of mesoscopic hemispherical caps iv) a macroscopically wet surface. The character of the transition between particular regimes, that also extend off-coexistence, sensitively depends on the model geometry. A temperature at which the system becomes completely wet is considerably higher than that for a flat wall.