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Influence of polarization on contact angle saturation during electrowetting

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Hasko, DG 
Nathan, A 

Abstract

Electrowetting is widely used to manipulate liquids on a dielectric surface by changing the wettability of the solid-liquid interface using an externally applied electric field. While the contact angle can be adequately predicted at low fields using Lippmann's model, there is a large disagreement with experimental behavior at high fields, where the contact angle saturates. Previous attempts to explain this saturation effect (by considering a range of different mechanisms) have led to models that are applicable only to limited field ranges. Here, we use a model for the solid-liquid interfacial surface energy (based on a dipole-dipole interaction) to describe electrowetting and find that this explains the contact angle change at both low (continuous change) and high (saturation) fields. The model is compared with measured contact angle changes for both water and ethylene glycol liquids, with good agreement over the whole field range.

Description

Keywords

51 Physical Sciences, 40 Engineering, 5103 Classical Physics

Journal Title

Applied Physics Letters

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0003-6951
1077-3118

Volume Title

109

Publisher

AIP Publishing
Sponsorship
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (645760)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Research Infrastructures (RI) (692373)
Isaac Newton Trust (Minute 1338(i))
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M013650/1)