Capillary Deformations of Bendable Films

R. D. Schroll, M. Adda-Bedia, E. Cerda, J. Huang, N. Menon, T. P. Russell, K. B. Toga, D. Vella, B. Davidovitch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

72 Scopus citations

Abstract

We address the partial wetting of liquid drops on ultrathin solid sheets resting on a deformable foundation. Considering the membrane limit of sheets that can relax compression through wrinkling at negligible energetic cost, we revisit the classical theory for the contact of liquid drops on solids. Our calculations and experiments show that the liquid-solid-vapor contact angle is modified from the Young angle, even though the elastic bulk modulus (E) of the sheet is so large that the ratio between the surface tension γ and E is of molecular size. This finding indicates a new elastocapillary phenomenon that stems from the high bendability of very thin elastic sheets rather than from material softness. We also show that the size of the wrinkle pattern that emerges in the sheet is fully predictable, thus resolving a puzzle in modeling "drop-on-a-floating-sheet" experiments and enabling a quantitative, calibration-free use of this setup for the metrology of ultrathin films. © 2013 American Physical Society.
Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume111
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 3 2013
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledged KAUST grant number(s): KUK-C1-013-04
Acknowledgements: We acknowledge support by the Petroleum Research Fund of the American Chemical Society (R. D. S., B. D.), NSF-MRSEC on Polymers at UMass Amherst DMR 08-20506 (R. D. S., J. H., K. B. T., T. P. R.), Fondecyt Projects No. 3120228 (R. D. S.) and No. 1130579 (E. C.), Anillo Act 95 (E. C.), NSF DMR 09-07245 and DMR 12-0778 (N. M.), Grant No. KUK-C1-013-04 made by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (D. V.), and NSF CAREER Grant No. DMR 11-51780 (B. D.).
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

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