title: Geometry-dependent electrostatics near contact lines.
abstract: Long-ranged electrostatic interactions in electrolytes modify contact angles on charged substrates in a scale and geometry-dependent manner. For angles measured at scales smaller than the typical Debye screening length, the wetting geometry near the contact line must be explicitly considered. Using variational and asymptotic methods, we derive new transcendental equations for the contact angle as functions of the electrostatic potential only at the three phase contact line. Analytic expressions are found in certain limits and compared with predictions for contact angles measured with lower resolution. An estimate for electrostatic contributions to line tension is also given.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomathematics, UCLA, Los Angeles, California 90095-1766, USA. tomchou@ucla.edu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chou
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D004563:Electrochemistry; D004573:Electrolytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D004573:Electrolytes