2017 journal article
Relationship between contact angle and contact line radius for micro to atto [10(-6) to 10(-18)] liter size oil droplets
JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR LIQUIDS, 248, 920–926.
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
6. Clean Water and Sanitation
(Web of Science)
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
(Web of Science)
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018
Contact angles of liquids on surfaces characterize wettability and have been studied extensively, especially for sessile droplets on flat surfaces. Continuum models that incorporate the contact line energy into Young's equation predict a linear dependence between the cosine of the contact angle and the inverse line radius. Experimental evidence for non-volatile nanodroplets suggests a non-linear relationship. At these dimensions (femto and atto liter sized droplets), experimental evidence suggests a flattening of the curve which can be explained by the addition of internal Laplace pressures. This, in turn, indicates that the contact angle for ultra small droplets is less than that measured for macro droplets.