Joël De Coninck

Dynamics of wetting

We review the mechanisms controlling the dynamics of wetting in partial and complete wetting regimes. It is shown that the behaviour in several timescales may characterize the dynamics since different channels of energy dissipation have to be considered within spreading.

Electrospinning of a Functional Perfluorinated Block Copolymer as a Powerful Route for Imparting Superhydrophobicity and Corrosion Resistance to Aluminum Substrates

Superhydrophobic aluminum surfaces with excellent corrosion resistance were successfully prepared by electrospinning of a novel fluorinated diblock copolymer solution. Micro- and nanostructuration of the diblock copolymer coating was obtained by electrospinning which proved to be an easy and cheap electrospinning technology to fabricate superhydrophobic coating. The diblock copolymer is made of poly(heptadecafluorodecylacrylate-co-acrylic acid) (PFDA-co-AA) random copolymer as the first block and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) as the second one. The fluorinated block promotes hydrophobicity to the surface by reducing the surface tension, while its carboxylic acid functions anchor the polymer film onto the aluminum surface after annealing at 130 °C. The PAN block of this copolymer insures the stability of the structuration of the surface during annealing, thanks to the infusible character of PAN. It is also demonstrated that the so-formed superhydrophobic coating shows good adhesion to aluminum surfaces, resulting in excellent corrosion resistance.

Surface functionalization of germanium ATR devices for use in FTIR-biosensors

Biosensors based on intrinsic detection methods have attracted growing interest. The use of Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectroscopy with the attenuated internal total reflection (ATR) mode, in the biodetection context, requires appropriate surface functionalization of the ATR optical element. Here, we report the direct grafting of a thin organic layer (about 20 A depth) on the surface of a germanium crystal. This covering, constructed with novel amphiphilic molecules 2b (namely, 2,5,8,11,14,17,20-heptaoxadocosan-22-yl-3-(triethoxysilyl) propylcarbamate), is stable for several hours under phosphate buffered saline (PBS) flux and features protein-repulsive properties. Photografting of molecule 5 (namely, O-succinimidyl 4-(p-azidophenyl)butanoate) affords the activated ATR element, ready for the covalent fixation of receptors, penicillin recognizing proteins BlaR-CTD for instance. The different steps of the previous construction have been monitored by water contact angle (theta(w)) measurements, spectroscopic ellipsometry (covering depth), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) by using a fluorinated tag for the control of surface reactivity, and FTIR-ATR spectroscopy for the structural analysis of grafted molecules. Indeed, contrarily to silicon device, germanium device offers a broad spectral window (1000-4000 cm(-1)) and thus amide I and II absorption bands can be recorded. This work lays the foundations for the construction of novel FTIR biosensors.

Superhydrophobic Aluminum Surfaces by Deposition of Micelles of Fluorinated Block Copolymers

Superhydrophobic surfaces are generated by chemisorption on aluminum substrates of fluorinated block copolymers synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer in supercritical carbon dioxide. In an appropriate solvent, those block copolymers can form micelles with a fluorinated corona, which are grafted on the aluminum substrate thanks to the presence of carboxylic acid groups in the corona. Water contact angle and drop impact analysis were used to characterize the wettability of the films at the macroscale, and atomic force microscopy measurements provided morphological information at the micro- and nanoscale. The simple solvent casting of the polymer solution on a hydroxylated aluminum surface results in a coating with multiscale roughness, which is fully superhydrophobic over areas up to 4 cm(2).

Drop Impact on Soft Surfaces: Beyond the Static Contact Angles

The wettability of cross-linked poly(dimethylsiloxane) elastomer films and of octadecyltrichlorosilane self-assembled monolayers with water has been measured and compared using various methods. Contact angle hysteresis values were compared with values reported in the literature. A new method to characterize advancing, receding contact angles, and hysteresis using drop impact have been tested and compared with usual methods. It has been found that for the rigid surfaces the drop impact method is comparable with other methods but that for elastomer surfaces the hysteresis is function of the drop impact velocity which influences the extent of the deformation of the soft surface at the triple line.

Forced wetting and hydrodynamic assist

Wetting is a prerequisite for coating a uniform layer of liquid onto a solid. Wetting failure and air entrainment set the ultimate limit to coating speed. It is well known in the coating art that this limit can be postponed by manipulating the coating flow to generate what has been termed “hydrodynamic assist,” but the underlying mechanism is unclear. Experiments have shown that the conditions that postpone air entrainment also reduce the apparent dynamic contact angle, suggesting a direct link, but how the flow might affect the contact angle remains to be established. Here, we use molecular dynamics to compare the outcome of steady forced wetting with previous results for the spontaneous spreading of liquid drops and apply the molecular-kinetic theory of dynamic wetting to rationalize our findings and place them on a quantitative footing. The forced wetting simulations reveal significant slip at the solid-liquid interface and details of the flow immediately adjacent to the moving contact line. Our results confirm that the local, microscopic contact angle is dependent not simply only on the velocity of wetting but also on the nature of the flow that drives it. In particular, they support an earlier suggestion that during forced wetting, an intense shear stress in the vicinity of the contact line can assist surface tension forces in promoting dynamic wetting, thus reducing the velocity-dependence of the contact angle. Hydrodynamic assist then appears as a natural consequence of wetting that emerges when the contact line is driven by a strong and highly confined flow. Our theoretical approach also provides a self-consistent model of molecular slip at the solid-liquid interface that enables its magnitude to be estimated from dynamic contact angle measurements. In addition, the model predicts how hydrodynamic assist and slip may be influenced by liquid viscosity and solid-liquid interactions.

Langevin dynamics of an interface near a wall

We study dynamical contact angles and precursor films using Langevin dynamics for SOS type models, near a wall which favors spreading. We first solve exactly the Gaussian model and discuss various asymptotic regimes. This is only appropriate to partial wetting. We then consider more general models. Using local equilibrium and scaling arguments, we derive the shape of the dynamical profile and the speed of the precursor film which exists when the spreading coefficient is strictly positive. Long-range potentials lead to a layered structure of the precursor film. We also consider the case of a meniscus in a capillary.

Random Walk Weakly Attracted to a Wall

AbstractWe consider a random walk Xn in ℤ+, starting at X0=x≥0, with transition probabilities

Wetting of Heterogeneous Surfaces at the Mesoscopic Scale

\mathbb{P}(X_{n+1}=X_{n}\pm1|X_{n}=y\ge1)={1\over2}\mp{\delta\over4y+2\delta}