Identifying Differences and Similarities in Static and Dynamic Contact Angles between Nanoscale and Microscale Textured Surfaces Using Molecular Dynamics Simulations.

Abstract

We quantify some of the effects of patterned nanoscale surface texture on static contact angles, dynamic contact angles, and dynamic contact angle hysteresis using molecular dynamics simulations of a moving Lennard-Jones droplet in contact with a solid surface. We observe static contact angles that change with the introduction of surface texture in a manner consistent with theoretical and experimental expectations. However, we find that the introduction of nanoscale surface texture at the length scale of 5-10 times the fluid particle size does not affect dynamic contact angle hysteresis even though it changes both the advancing and receding contact angles significantly. This result differs significantly from microscale experimental results where dynamic contact angle hysteresis decreases with the addition of surface texture due to an increase in the receding contact angle. Instead, we find that molecular-kinetic theory, previously applied only to nonpatterned surfaces, accurately describes dynamic contact angle and dynamic contact angle hysteresis behavior as a function of terminal fluid velocity. Therefore, at length scales of tens of nanometers, the kinetic phenomena such as contact line pinning observed at larger scales become insignificant in comparison to the effects of molecular fluctuations for moving droplets, even though the static properties are essentially scale-invariant. These findings may have implications for the design of highly hierarchical structures with particular wetting properties. We also find that quantitatively determining the trends observed in this article requires the careful selection of system and analysis parameters in order to achieve sufficient accuracy and precision in calculated contact angles. Therefore, we provide a detailed description of our two-surface, circular-fit approach to calculating static and dynamic contact angles on surfaces with nanoscale texturing.