Controlling the pinning time of a receding contact line under forced wetting conditions

Abstract

h i g h l i g h t s Development and validation by MD simulations of an analytical model able to predict the dynamic contact angles in a capillary liquid bridge confined between two parallel plates in relative motion with different wettabilities. Detailed description of the pinning/ depinning process of a contact line on a chemical heterogeneity at the nanoscale. Development and validation by MD simulations of a geometrical model able to predict the pinning time on a chemical heterogeneity. The pinning time depends not only on substrate/heterogeneity wettability contrast and relative plate velocity, but also on the separation distance between the plates confining the capillary bridge.

Stability of surface and bulk nanobubbles

“…Nevertheless, due to their ability to probe length and time scales inaccessible by experiment, MD studies have and will continue to provide illuminating qualitative insights about nanobubbles and other fluid dynamical or transport processes at the nanoscale. A non-exhaustive list of recent insights include nucleation by solvent exchange [84], pinning and force balance at the contact line [51,86], and an impressive computational validation of the salient ideas of the pinning-oversaturation model [50].…”