Dynamics of heterogeneous wetting in periodic hybrid nanopores

Cyril Picard (1) , Valentin Gérard (1) , Loïc Michel (1) , X. Cattoen (2) , Elisabeth Charlaix (1)

1 LIPhy - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique [Saint Martin d’Hères]
2 NEEL - OPTIMA - Optique et Matériaux

We present experimental and theoretical results concerning the forced filling and spontaneous drying of hydrophobic cylindrical mesopores in dynamical regime. Pores are structured with organic/inorganic moieties responsible for a periodicity of the surface energy along their axis. We find that the forced intrusion of water in these hydrophobic pores presents a slow dynamics: the intrusion pressure decreases as the logarithm of the intrusion time. We find that this slow dynamics is well described quantitatively by a classical model of activated wetting at the nanoscale, giving access to the structural length scales and surface energies of the mesoporous material.

Domaines: Matière Condensée [cond-mat]; Milieux fluides et réactifs

Cyril Picard, Valentin Gérard, Loïc Michel, X. Cattoen, Elisabeth Charlaix. Dynamics of heterogeneous wetting in periodic hybrid nanopores. Journal of Chemical Physics, 2021, 154 (16), pp.164710. ⟨10.1063/5.0044391⟩. ⟨hal-03128074⟩