Interfacial wetting in binary liquid mixtures

Abstract

We classify the wetting behavior of binary liquid mixtures at their liquid-vapor interface. The criteria with respect to the atomic interactions between the two species are whether the Hamaker constant of that interface fulfills either the sufficient conditions for the absence of a wetting transition, or the necessary conditions for critical wetting, or the necessary conditions either for being wet already at low temperatures of for undergoing a first-order wetting transition upon approaching the critical end point along the triple line. Based on the Percus-Yevick theory we scan the whole parameter space which determines the structure of the bulk phase diagrams. In addition we compare the predictions of the Percus-Yevick theory for the bulk phase diagrams and the number densities of the fluid bulk phases with experimental and simulation data as well as with different theoretical approaches.