Spontaneous spreading of surfactant-bearing drops in the sorption-controlled limit.
Axisymmetric spreading of a liquid drop containing a soluble surfactant on a smooth solid substrate is numerically investigated for the case in which surfactant mass transfer between the interface and the bulk liquid is sorption/kinetic controlled. The fastest spreading rate is achieved by drops with O(1) values of Biot number for which the rate of surface convection is comparable to the sorption rate, and the surfactant molecules transferred to the interface are effectively convected to the contact line region.
Chan
Kit Yan
KY
Department of Chemical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Borhan
Ali
A