Issue 35, 2013

Elasto-capillarity at the nanoscale: on the coupling between elasticity and surface energy in soft solids

Abstract

The capillary forces exerted by liquid drops and bubbles on a soft solid are directly measured using molecular dynamics simulations. The force on the solid by the liquid near the contact line is neither oriented along the liquid vapor interface nor perpendicular to the solid surface, as usually assumed, but points towards the liquid. It is shown that the elastic deformations induced by this force can only be explained if, in contrast to an incompressible liquid, the surface stress is different from the surface energy. Using thermodynamic variations we show that the surface stress and the surface energy can both be determined accurately by measuring the deformation of a slender body plunged in a liquid. The results obtained from molecular dynamics fully confirm those recently obtained experimentally [Marchand et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., (2012), 108, 094301] for an elastomeric wire.

Graphical abstract: Elasto-capillarity at the nanoscale: on the coupling between elasticity and surface energy in soft solids

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 Mar 2013
Accepted
26 Jun 2013
First published
28 Jun 2013

Soft Matter, 2013,9, 8494-8503

Elasto-capillarity at the nanoscale: on the coupling between elasticity and surface energy in soft solids

J. H. Weijs, B. Andreotti and J. H. Snoeijer, Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 8494 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM50861G

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