| Issue |
EPL
Volume 79, Number 5, September 2007
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 56005 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Condensed Matter: Structural, Mechanical and Thermal Properties | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/79/56005 | |
| Published online | 08 August 2007 | |
Wicking within forests of micropillars
1
Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, UMR 7636 du CNRS, ESPCI - 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
2
Department of Physics, Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Ochanomizu University Tokyo 112-8610, Japan
Received:
18
May
2007
Accepted:
19
July
2007
We describe how a wetting liquid brought into contact with a forest of
micropillars impregnates this forest. Both the driving and the viscous forces depend on the parameters of
the texture (radius b and height h of the pillars, pitch p
of the network) and it is found that two different limits characterize the dynamics of wicking. For small posts (
),
the film progresses all the faster since the posts are high, allowing a simple control of this dynamics. For tall
pillars (
), the speed of impregnation becomes independent
of the pillar height, and becomes mainly fixed by the radius of the posts.
PACS: 68.08.Bc – Wetting / 68.35.Md – Surface thermodynamics, surface energies / 85.40.Hp – Lithography, masks and pattern transfer
© Europhysics Letters Association, 2007
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