Understanding the tunable wetting of droplets on graphite and cellulose surfaces

Wetting plays a crucial role in various areas, including bio-adhesion, interfacial transport, and mass separation. However, our current theoretical understanding of how wetting behaviors can be controlled remains limited. This limitation hinders our ability to systematically regulate wetting.

In our study, we employ molecular dynamics simulations to investigate how different types of ions can affect and fine-tune wetting behaviors on distinct surfaces, such as graphite and cellulose surfaces.

Our findings reveal that the adjustability of water droplet wetting on graphite surfaces is notably sensitive to the presence of specific monovalent ions at moderate ion concentrations. In contrast, the type of ions has a much milder impact on wetting when it comes to cellulose surfaces.

We provide an explanation for these observations by considering ion distribution and conducting thermodynamic analysis. This research contributes to our comprehensive understanding of how we can systematically control and fine-tune wetting behaviors.