15CH455E

Microchemical Systems
Unit 2 Part 02
Contact angle, wettability, capillarity
 Contact angle
• Contact angle, θ, is a quantitative
measure of the wetting of a solid by
a liquid
• It is the angle at which the liquid-
gas (or liquid-vapor) interface meets
the solid-liquid interface
• By convention, contact angle is
measured on liquid side rather than
on gas (or vapor) side,
• Hence, it is the angle between the
tangent to the liquid-gas interface and
the tangent to the solid interface at
the contact line between the three
phases (as seen in figure)
Reference: Springer Handbook of Experimental Fluid Mechanics
Wetting

Partial wetting
Hydrophilic/hydrophobic contact
• The contact of a water droplet on a solid is classified as hydrophilic or
hydrophobic depending on the value of the contact angle

• Ultrahydrophobic (or superhydrophobic) surfaces are highly

hydrophobic, i.e., extremely difficult to wet. The contact angles of a
water droplet on an ultrahydrophobic material exceed 150°
• Measurement of contact angle is frequently used as a quick and
simple method to gain qualitative information about the chemical
nature of the surface.
• More generally, the terms appropriate for all liquids are lyophilic and
lyophobic (solvent loving and solvent hating).
The intrinsic hydrophobicity of a surface can be enhanced by being textured
with different length scales of roughness
 The surface structure of the lotus leaf and the rose petal, can be used to
explain the two different effects

• The lotus leaf has a randomly rough surface and in this case that the water droplet is not able to
wet the microstructure spaces between the spikes. This allows air to remain inside the texture,
causing a heterogeneous surface composed of both air and solid. As a result, the adhesive force
between the water and the solid surface is extremely low, allowing the water to roll off easily (i.e.,
“self-cleaning” phenomena).

• The rose petal’s micro- and nanostructures are larger in scale than the lotus leaf, which allows the
liquid film to impregnate the texture. However,, the liquid can enter into the larger-scale grooves (left
scheme), but it cannot enter into the smaller grooves (right scheme). This is known as the Cassie
impregnating wetting regime. Since the liquid can wet the larger-scale grooves, the adhesive force
between the water and solid is very high. This explains why the water droplet will not fall off even if
the petal is tilted at an angle or turned upside down. However, this effect will fail if the droplet has a
volume larger than 10 μl because the balance between weight and surface tension is surpassed.
Contact angle equation

This equation was developed for the case of an ideal solid surface, which
is defined as smooth, rigid, chemically homogeneous, insoluble and non-
reactive. Therefore, this contact angle is referred to as the ideal contact
angle.
Contact angle equation

• The aforementioned relationship depends only on the chemical

nature of the three phases, and is independent of gravity.
• Gravity may affect the shape of the drop, but not in the close
proximity of the contact line, thus not its contact angle (unless drop
size is too big to bring gravity into picture)
To what extent can we ignore gravity effects in
contact angle measurements?
• Capillary length (lc) determines when gravity starts playing a
significant role compared to surface tension
𝛾
𝑙𝑐 =
𝜌𝑔
• For water, capillary length ~ 2.7 mm
• Below a drop radius of 2.7 mm for water, the dominant forces are
capillary terms and gravity effects can be neglected, which is the case
in contact angle measurements, and working at micro/nano length
scales
Capillarity
• This rise or fall of a liquid when a small diameter tube is immersed in
it is known as capillarity.
Capillarity: Meniscus shape

Capillarity is the combined effect of cohesive and adhesive forces

 Capillarity
• Capillary rise
• Inside a thin glass tube immersed in water,
the adhesive forces are stronger than the
cohesive forces, so that the water
molecules are attracted to the glass more
strongly than to each other
• The adhesive force, the attraction
between the water and the glass wall,
draws water up the sides of the glass tube
to form a meniscus. The cohesive force,
the attraction of the water molecules to
each other, then tries to minimize the
distance between the water molecules by
pulling the bottom of the meniscus up
against the force of gravity
• Capillary fall
• If a glass capillary is inserted into
mercury, the adhesive forces are weaker
than the cohesive forces. The mercury
atoms are attracted to each other more
strongly than they are to the glass. So,
liquid mercury is repelled rather than
attracted to glass.
• The mercury tries to minimize its contact
with the glass walls. This causes an
upward bowing of the mercury liquid
against the downwards pull of gravity as
it tries to maximize the contact between
mercury atoms and minimize the contact
with the glass wall
Derivation for capillary height (h) equation
Effect of parameters on height of capillary rise (h)

• As diameter of tube increases,

capillary rise decreases. In large-
diameter tubes, this rise in the
liquid level is unnoticeable.
• Hence in order to avoid capillary
effect in manometer tubes, the
diameter of the tubes should be
more.
• Also, lighter liquid experiences
greater capillary rise.
Applications of interfacial phenomena in microscale systems (unit 5)