ABSTRACT
The shear response of molecularly thin liquid films on solid substrates when subjected to an applied air stress has been measured. The response corresponds to viscous friction while the same films sheared between two solid surfaces display static friction. These results show that molecularly thin liquid films partially confined by a single solid surface do not solidify as when confined between two solid surfaces. We are also able to observe several novel properties for liquid films on single solid surfaces not previously observed or expected.
ABSTRACT
The spreading of liquid droplets composed of molecules with or without reactive end groups over a solid surface has been studied using Monte Carlo simulations. For molecules without reactive end groups, a molecular layering in the spreading profiles is predicted, depending on the ratio of the magnitude of intermolecular interactions to thermal energy. As intermolecular interactions become smaller than thermal energy, the layered structure vanishes. For molecules with reactive end groups, interactions between end groups and between end groups and the surface complicate the situation. By assuming an end-to-end interaction between molecules and the pinning of end groups to the surface, a complex layered structure is obtained. Our simulation predicts spreading profiles that accurately describe the broad spectrum of data obtained from scanning microellipsometry for perfluoropolyalkylethers with and without reactive end groups.
