Contact angle for a sessile drop: a statistical mechanical approach

✍ Scribed by Joël De Coninck

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 484 KB
• Volume: 89
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0927-7757
• DOI: 10.1016/0927-7757(94)80111-8

✦ Synopsis

We present a review of a theoretical study at the microscopic level of the contact angle for a sessile drop. We use a two-dimensional solid-on-solid model to describe the profile of the drop, and the interactions with the substrate are chosen to be of short range. In the presence of a pure substrate, where the equilibrium contact angle may be exactly computed, we show the validity of Young's equation. In the presence of a disordered substrate, we find that the approach to equilibrium is characterized by several metastable states; we interpret the associated angles as advancing and receding angles since their lifetime is exponentially large with respect to the size of the drop.