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Abstract
The dewetting process is crucial for several applications in nanotechnology. Even though not all dewetting phenomena are fully understood yet, especially regarding metallic fluids, it is clear that the formation of nanometre-sized particles, droplets, and clusters as well as their movement are strongly linked to their wetting behaviour. For this reason, the thermodynamic stability of thin metal layers (0.1–100 nm) with respect to their free energy is examined here. The decisive factor for the theoretical considerations is the interfacial energy. In order to achieve a better understanding of the interfacial interactions, three different models for estimating the interfacial energy are presented here: (i) fully theoretical, (ii) empirical, and (iii) semi-empirical models. The formation of nanometre-sized gold particles on silicon and silicon oxide substrates is investigated in detail. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of the three models are elucidated, the different substrates used are compared, and the possibility to further process the obtained particles as nanocatalysts is verified. The importance of a persistent thin communication wetting layer between the particles and its effects on particle size and number is also clarified here. In particular, the intrinsic reduction of the Laplace pressure of the system due to material re-evaporation and Ostwald ripening describes the theoretically predicted and experimentally obtained results. Thus, dewetting phenomena of thin metal layers can be used to manufacture nanostructured devices. From this point of view, the application of gold droplets as catalysts to grow germanium nanowires on different substrates is described.
Highlights
Wetting phenomena as well as the formation and movement of droplets are essential for numerous applications
While the vW model has a zero-crossing in dreal = 0.38 nm, the other two models follow a classical dewetting mechanism: The function of the first derivative only
The number of droplets per area as a function of the temperature follows two trends, which change at approximately 550 °C
Summary
Wetting phenomena as well as the formation and movement of droplets are essential for numerous applications. For example, modifies the wetting behaviour of active fluids on composite materials or porous media to increase the efficiency and selectivity of catalytic processes [1]. Dropletbased microfluidics, including on-chip and off-chip incubation in immiscible phases, even developed into an independent field of science [2]. This shows that understanding wetting phenomena is crucial for a variety of industrial processes and research fields.
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