Filling a nanoporous substrate by dewetting of thin films.
Following a simple thermodynamic model, which predicts that an array of non-wettable pores can be filled by dewetting of sufficiently thin films, we use molecular dynamics to simulate the rupture of nanometre-thick liquid Au films on nanoporous substrates. Our simulations clearly exhibit spinodal dewetting and hole nucleation, and some of the metal is indeed absorbed by non-wettable pores solely as a virtue of the Laplace pressure acting on dewetted droplets and rivulet-like structures. Finally, we show that the fraction of absorbed Au can be increased through patterning of the initial film.
School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand. Dmitri.Schebarchov@gmail.com
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Schebarchov
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Lefèvre
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Somerville
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Hendy