title: Spreading of liquids on highly curved surfaces.
abstract: Because of surface tension, liquid films coating fibers or the insides of capillary tubes are usually unstable and break up into a periodic array of droplets. However, if these films are very thin (of thickness in the range of tens of angstroms), they can be stabilized by long-range van der Waals forces. A simple method for making such wetting films consists of slowly drawing the fiber out of a bath of liquid; the thickness of the film is then measured using a method based on gas chromatography. If these liquid films are thick, and are forced to flow, they may then not break up: the instability becomes "saturated."
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Quéré
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: di Meglio
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brochard-Wyart