Voltage effect on the phase wetting transition in liquid lead/molten alkali-chloride systems

Abstract

Electrocapillary studies of liquid lead in molten alkali-chloride systems reveal the disruption of the systems’ hydrodynamic equilibrium, caused by an electric field in the phase contact plane. It has been shown that the reason for this disruption is the transition from partial to complete wetting upon reaching the critical wetting potential (E_w) when the wetting angle becomes zero. The energy required for the transition to the film-like wetting regime increases as the interionic bond energy of the molten salt increases. Near the critical wetting potential, a quadratic dependence of the contact angle cosine on voltage is observed.