Influence of surface energetic heterogeneity on the formation of adsorbed layers and wetting of solid surfaces: A Monte Carlo study

We report results of Monte Carlo simulations of the formation of multilayer films on a model heterogeneous surface composed of parallel strips of sites characterized by different adsorbing potentials. It is shown that depending on the difference in the strength of surface potentials for adjacent strips, there is a certain limiting strip width ${\mathit{L}}_{\mathit{s}}^{\mathrm{co}}$ such that for broader strips the surface of weakly adsorbing sites is not covered by admolecules until the surface coverage on the strongly adsorbing part of the surface exceeds a certain critical value. For higher surface coverages of highly adsorbing strips, the entire surface exhibits uniform film thickness and surface nonuniformity does not play any role in the further growth of adsorbed film.