Issue |
EPL
Volume 86, Number 6, June 2009
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 66003 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Structural, Mechanical and Thermal Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/86/66003 | |
Published online | 01 July 2009 |
Thin film dynamics with surfactant phase transition
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Münster - Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 9, D-48149 Münster, Germany, EU
Corresponding author: m.koepf@uni-muenster.de
Received:
10
March
2009
Accepted:
2
June
2009
A thin liquid film covered with an insoluble surfactant in the vicinity of a first-order phase transition is discussed. Within the lubrication approximation we derive two coupled equations to describe the height profile of the film and the surfactant density. Thermodynamics of the surfactant is incorporated via a Cahn-Hilliard–type free-energy functional which can be chosen to describe a transition between two stable phases of different surfactant density. Within this model, a linear stability analysis of stationary homogeneous solutions is performed, and drop formation in a film covered with surfactant in the lower density phase is investigated numerically in one and two spatial dimensions.
PACS: 68.15.+e – Liquid thin films / 47.54.-r – Pattern selection; pattern formation / 68.18.Jk – Phase transitions in liquid thin films
© EPLA, 2009
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