Fundamental study on wettability of pure metal for water; Experimental approach

Saito, Junichi  ; Kobayashi, Yohei*

The purpose of this study deeply understands of wettability from the relationship between the contact angle and the atomic bond of the interface by using the result of theoretical calculation. As the substrate metal, nine kinds of pure metals and alloys were used. All of the contact angle were smaller than 90 degrees. It means the wettability of water with metal is good. The contact angle results have been evaluated using the bond order, which shows the strength of atomic interaction at the interface. For liquid metals and metals, the contact angle could be explained by the atomic bond at the interface. It was found that there is a good correlation between the contact angle and the atomic bond without contradictory to Young's equation even if the atomic bond at the interface is used. This suggests that it is possible to predict the wettability of an unknown metal with water.