TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-pinning of a nanosuspension droplet
T2 - Molecular dynamics simulations
AU - Shi, Baiou
AU - Webb, Edmund B.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, under the Directorate for Engineering, CBET Division (Grant No. 1512449). Computing and financial resources provided by a Lehigh University Faculty Innovation Grant are also acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 American Physical Society.
PY - 2016/7/18
Y1 - 2016/7/18
N2 - Results are presented from molecular dynamics simulations of Pb(l) nanodroplets containing dispersed Cu nanoparticles (NPs) and spreading on solid surfaces. Three-dimensional simulations are employed throughout, but droplet spreading and pinning are reduced to two-dimensional processes by modeling cylindrical NPs in cylindrical droplets; NPs have radius RNP≅3nm while droplets have initial R0≅42nm. At low particle loading explored here, NPs in sufficient proximity to the initial solid-droplet interface are drawn into advancing contact lines; entrained NPs eventually bind with the underlying substrate. For relatively low advancing contact angle θadv, self-pinning on entrained NPs occurs; for higher θadv, depinning is observed. Self-pinning and depinning cases are compared and forces on NPs at the contact line are computed during a depinning event. Though significant flow in the droplet occurs in close proximity to the particle during depinning, resultant forces are relatively low. Instead, forces due to liquid atoms confined between the particles and substrate dominate the forces on NPs; that is, for the NP size studied here, forces are interface dominated. For pinning cases, a precursor wetting film advances ahead of the pinned contact line but at a significantly slower rate than for a pure droplet. This is because the precursor film is a bilayer of liquid atoms on the substrate surface but it is instead a monolayer film as it crosses over pinning particles; thus, mass delivery to the bilayer structure is impeded.
AB - Results are presented from molecular dynamics simulations of Pb(l) nanodroplets containing dispersed Cu nanoparticles (NPs) and spreading on solid surfaces. Three-dimensional simulations are employed throughout, but droplet spreading and pinning are reduced to two-dimensional processes by modeling cylindrical NPs in cylindrical droplets; NPs have radius RNP≅3nm while droplets have initial R0≅42nm. At low particle loading explored here, NPs in sufficient proximity to the initial solid-droplet interface are drawn into advancing contact lines; entrained NPs eventually bind with the underlying substrate. For relatively low advancing contact angle θadv, self-pinning on entrained NPs occurs; for higher θadv, depinning is observed. Self-pinning and depinning cases are compared and forces on NPs at the contact line are computed during a depinning event. Though significant flow in the droplet occurs in close proximity to the particle during depinning, resultant forces are relatively low. Instead, forces due to liquid atoms confined between the particles and substrate dominate the forces on NPs; that is, for the NP size studied here, forces are interface dominated. For pinning cases, a precursor wetting film advances ahead of the pinned contact line but at a significantly slower rate than for a pure droplet. This is because the precursor film is a bilayer of liquid atoms on the substrate surface but it is instead a monolayer film as it crosses over pinning particles; thus, mass delivery to the bilayer structure is impeded.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevE.94.012614
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevE.94.012614
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84979276973
VL - 94
JO - Physical Review E
JF - Physical Review E
SN - 2470-0045
IS - 1
M1 - 012614
ER -