Capillary Emptying and Short-Range Wetting

A. O. Parry, C. Rascón, E. A. G. Jamie, and D. G. A. L. Aarts
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 246101 – Published 13 June 2012

Abstract

We consider a liquid trapped in a narrow horizontal capillary, under the influence of gravity. As the slit is widened, the meniscus, separating the capillary liquid from gas, deforms and develops a long tongue extending along the bottom wall. As a critical slit width is approached, the length of the tongue diverges continuously, leading to the emptying of the capillary. We show that the critical singularities characterizing emptying are the same as those at short-ranged wetting transitions, but at a scale set by the capillary length rather than the bulk correlation length. These meso- or macroscopic versions of both complete and critical wetting are observable in the laboratory and are studied here using a colloid-polymer mixture.

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  • Received 10 February 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.246101

© 2012 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

A. O. Parry

  • Department of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2BZ, United Kingdom

C. Rascón

  • GISC, Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain

E. A. G. Jamie and D. G. A. L. Aarts

  • Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QZ, United Kingdom

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Issue

Vol. 108, Iss. 24 — 15 June 2012

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