Theoretical Study of Wetting Behavior of Nanoparticles at Fluid Interfaces

In this work, a theoretical model was developed to describe the wetting behavior of nanoparticles at liquid-vapor interface by the integration of the renormalization group tran, formation, the cell theory, and the modified fundamental measurement theory with the first-order mean spherical approximation method. The results show that the new model can be used to investigate the global behavior and surface tensions of nanoparticle/fluid systems. Particularly, the nanoparticle's wetting behavior inside critical region was discussed systematically. More important, this work proposed a methodology for calculating line tension and contact angle, showing that line tension has considerable influence on wetting properties for small nanoparticles, whereas it is negligible for large nanoparticles. Therefore, this work provides a general method for studying the wetting behavior of nanoparticles that may find wide applications in the field of chemical engineering. (c) 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 55: 747-755, 2009