Contact angle of a nanodrop on a nanorough solid surface

Abstract

The contact angle of a cylindrical nanodrop on a nanorough solid surface is calculated, for both hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces, using the density functional theory. The emphasis of the paper is on the dependence of the contact angle on roughness. The roughness is modeled by rectangular pillars of infinite length located on the smooth surface of a substrate, with fluid–pillar interactions different in strength from the fluid–substrate ones. It is shown that for hydrophobic substrates the trend of the contact angle to increase with increasing roughness, which was noted in all previous studies, is not universally valid, but depends on the fluid–pillar interactions, pillar height, interpillar distance, as well as on the size of the drop. For hydrophilic substrate, an unusual kink-like dependence of the contact angle on the nanodrop size is found which is caused by the change in the location of the leading edges of the nanodrop on the surface. It is also shown that the Wenzel and Cassie–Baxter equations can not explain all the peculiarities of the contact angle of a nanodrop on a nanorough surface.