FILLING TRANSITIONS · Filling transitions for fluids at structured substrates and related phenomena.

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Project objective

The purpose of this proposal is to further investigate the theory of interfacial phase transitions on structured substrates. From this study we hope to develop a more complete picture of the role that surface geometry plays in determining fluid adsorption and its interplay with interfacial fluctuation effects. We are interested in the phenomenology that arises at the micrometer scale, where fluctuations can be important. At this scale, effective Hamiltonian models are currently the only tools that allow us to study fluctuating interfaces. We will consider mainly the filling phenomenology in simple geometries like a wedge or a conic groove, and interfacial pinning atman apex or conic tip. The main objectives of our project are the following:a) To find the origin and explore the consequences of 2D wedge and 3D conic covariance, where by covariance we mean a hidden connection found between filling and wetting phenomena in planarsubstrates.b) To study the apex covariance, that recently has shown a new class covariance, different from the one exhibited by the wedge filling’sc) To study the nature of 3D wedge filling transition, that present strong fluctuation effects, and the role that the 2D wedge covariance can play into it’sd) To investigate new interfacial phenomenology, like adsorption in a parabolic wedge, unbending transitions in striped heterogeneous arrays and adsorption of complex fluids in linear wedges, and the consequences of the results obtained in the previous items on them. These objectives will be met in the framework of equilibrium statistical mechanics, and the techniques that will bemused for this project will be analytical (including transfer matrix methods and renormalization group schemes), numerical minimization of free energy functional and Monte Carlo simulations.

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Participants

• IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE · LONDONCoordinatorUnited Kingdom

Links

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