Dynamics of a Spreading Nanodroplet: A Molecular Dynamic Simulation

✍ Scribed by Jacqueline Yaneva; Andrey Milchev; Kurt Binder

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 247 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1344
• DOI: 10.1002/mats.200350021

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The spreading of polymer nanodroplets upon a sudden change from partial to complete wetting on an ideally flat and structureless solid substrate has been studied by molecular dynamic simulations using a coarse‐grained bead‐spring model of flexible macromolecules. Tanner's law for the growth of the lateral droplet radius {R(t) ∝ t^0.1^} is found to hold as long as the droplet does not disintegrate into individually moving chains. The data for the contact angle θ following from Tanner's law correspond to a dependence on time {θ(t) ∝ t^−0.3^}. Our analysis of the mean square displacements of the polymer centers of mass reveals several dynamic regimes during the process of spreading. PACS numbers: 68.10.Gw, 05.70.Ln, 61.20.Ja, 8.45.Gd.

Molecular dynamics results for the average mean square displacement of all polymer chains plotted vs. time for a broad range of values for ε~wall~.

magnified imageMolecular dynamics results for the average mean square displacement of all polymer chains plotted vs. time for a broad range of values for ε~wall~.