Exploring the gap between theory and experiment at the three-phase contact line of polystyrene droplets on soft PDMS.

ABSTRACT: The shape of liquid polystyrene (PS) droplets obtained via the dewetting of nanometer thin PS films from soft viscoelastic polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates are investigated. For a range of droplet sizes and substrate elasticities we measure the profiles of all the interfaces by combining lift-off techniques with atomic force microscopy and compare them to the predictions of fully time-dependent sharp-interface models for the PS/PDMS system, that are derived through energy minimization methods and allow to follow the dewetting dynamics towards their equilibrium states. Our analysis shows that there is a thin layer of uncrosslinked PDMS molecules that cloaks the PS droplets. By incorporating the effect of cloaking into the surface energies of our theoretical model, the experimental dro

SUBMITTER: Remini K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12695972 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature