Instabilities during wetting processes: wetting by tensioactive liquids.

Abstract

Stick-slip phenomena may be observed when a liquid containing surface-active molecules advances on a hydrophilic solid surface. They are due to the diffusion of these molecules in front of the liquid edge, locally increasing the contact angle. This paper presents an experimental study of the instabilities of the liquid front. A simple theoretical analysis for the diffusion process is proposed, which accounts satisfactorily for the experimental results