Contact Angles on Materials having Heterogeneous Surfaces

The interaction of fluids with heterogeneous solid surfaces are particularly important in material surface-based industrial processes such as printing, patterning, fabrication of MEMS devices, separation of plastics, de-inking flotation, and others. Even though these interactions are common and important, they are not well understood.  They depend upon the nature of the heterogeneity, its size, morphology, and distribution.  In our research activities, a comprehensive study of the interaction between fluids and  heterogeneous surfaces is outlined.  The results from these studies are used to test available theories of wetting phenomena. Our experiments involve real-world heterogeneous materials and “well defined” heterogeneous surfaces composed of adsorbed and self-assembled organic layers of varying functionality, structure, and density. Both atomic force microscopy and contact angle measurement technique are used in examination of interactions of fluids of varying polarity with heterogeneous surfaces.   

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