Line tension of sessile droplets: Thermodynamic considerations

Abstract

We deduce a thermodynamically consistent diffuse interface model to study the line tension phenomenon of sessile droplets. By extending the standard Cahn-Hilliard model via modifying the free energy functional due to the spatial reflection asymmetry at the substrate, we provide an alternative interpretation for the wall energy. In particular, we find the connection of the line tension effect with the droplet-matrix-substrate triple interactions. This finding reveals that the apparent contact angle deviating from Young's law is contributed by the wall energy reduction as well as the line energy minimization. Besides, the intrinsic negative line tension resulting from the curvature effect is observed in our simulations and shows good accordance with recent experiments [Tan et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 064003 (2023)]. Moreover, our model sheds light upon the understanding of the wetting edge formation which results from the vying effect of wall energy and line tension.