Adsorption trajectories of nonspherical particles at liquid interfaces

Buzza, D. M. A.; Stasiuk, G. J.; Horozov, T. S.; Adawi, A. M.; Bouillard, J.-S. G.; Lowe, C.; Fox, J.; Morgan, S. O.

Abstract

The adsorption of colloidal particles at liquid interfaces is of great importance scientifically and industrially, but the dynamics of the adsorption process is still poorly understood. In this paper we use a Langevin model to study the adsorption dynamics of ellipsoidal colloids at a liquid interface. Interfacial deformations are included by coupling our Langevin dynamics to a finite element model while transient contact line pinning due to nanoscale defects on the particle surface is encoded into our model by renormalizing particle friction coefficients and using dynamic contact angles relevant to the adsorption timescale. Our simple model reproduces the monotonic variation of particle orientation with time that is observed experimentally and is also able to quantitatively model the adsorption dynamics for some experimental ellipsoidal systems but not others. However, even for the latter case, our model accurately captures the adsorption trajectory (i.e., particle orientation versus height) of the particles. Our study clarifies the subtle interplay between capillary, viscous, and contact line forces in determining the wetting dynamics of micron-scale objects, allowing us to design more efficient assembly processes for complex particles at liquid interfaces.

Citation

Buzza, D. M. A., Stasiuk, G. J., Horozov, T. S., Adawi, A. M., Bouillard, J.-S. G., Lowe, C., Fox, J., & Morgan, S. O. (2021). Adsorption trajectories of nonspherical particles at liquid interfaces. Physical Review E, 103(4), Article 042604. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.103.042604

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 22, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 12, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-04
• Deposit Date: Apr 19, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 10, 2022
• Journal: Physical Review E
• Print ISSN: 2470-0045
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0053
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 103
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 042604
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.103.042604
• Keywords: Contact line dynamics; Fluid-particle interactions; Interface & surface thermodynamics; Wetting; Colloids
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3752814