Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

The DPG Spring Meeting in Dresden had to be cancelled! Read more ...

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

SYDW: Symposium Dynamical wetting of flexible, adaptive and switchable surfaces

SYDW 1: Dynamical wetting of flexible, adaptive and switchable surfaces (SYDW)

SYDW 1.3: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 19, 2020, 16:00–16:30, HSZ 02

Droplets on shaped liquid and electrically switchable surfaces — •Glen McHale — Smart Materials and Surfaces Laboratory, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK

The dynamic wetting of a surface by a droplet depends on the relaxation from an initial non-equilibrium to a final equilibrium state and the rate of dissipation during that relaxation. Here I will outline key work of our group and collaborators in studying two aspects of this process by reducing friction using lubricated surfaces and controlling droplet states using electric fields. Initially, I will explain how sessile droplets wet composite solid-liquid surfaces. I will then show how two length scales combined with gradient structures can be used to generate low friction bidirectional motion towards the more wettable solid or liquid surface. In the case of conformal lubricant coatings, I will argue the surface contacted by a droplet can be viewed as a low friction shaped liquid surface. I will then consider how non-uniform electric fields can be used to control the extent of wetting of a solid or lubricated surface by a droplet. Finally, I will show examples of using non-uniform electric fields as an effective and versatile tool for controlling wetting states and studying the dynamics of dewetting.