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Drop size dependence of contact angles on two fluoropolymers

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Abstract

Young’s equation predicts that the contact angle of a liquid drop is independent of its size. Nevertheless, large drop size dependences of contact angles have been observed, especially for millimetre-sized drops, on a variety of solid surfaces. We report new measurements of drop size dependence of contact angles for several liquids on two fluoropolymer surfaces, Teflon AF 1600 and EGC-1700. We demonstrate a new strategy for contact angle measurement that allows detection of approximately 0.1° changes in the contact angle during the growth of a drop. We find that on the surfaces examined, drop size dependence of contact angles is ten times smaller than on all previously studied fluoropolymers at the millimetre scale. The data are insensitive to various attempted surface modifications. We discuss the interpretation of the data and possible physical sources.

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Acknowledgements

RD thanks Prof. Joelle Frechette for raising the question of whether surfaces were amorphous or crystalline. We thank 3M Canada for the generous donation of EGC-1700 and acknowledge funding from grant 8278 and a postdoctoral fellowship (RD), both from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King’s College Rd., Room MB56, M5S 3G8, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Robert David, Michelle K. Park, Ali Kalantarian & A. Wilhelm Neumann

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  1. Robert David
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  2. Michelle K. Park
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  3. Ali Kalantarian
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  4. A. Wilhelm Neumann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert David.

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Table S1

Summary of experimental data on modified surfaces (details in text). (DOC 48 kb)

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David, R., Park, M.K., Kalantarian, A. et al. Drop size dependence of contact angles on two fluoropolymers. Colloid Polym Sci 287, 1167–1173 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-009-2077-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00396-009-2077-1

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