Liquid-liquid Dewetting

Dewetting describes the rupture of a thin liquid film on a substrate. In spinodal dewetting surfaces uniformly covered with nanodroplets can be manufactured. In liquid-liquid dewetting a liquid film dewets from an underlying liquid film, which in turn can also destabilize. We investigate the large variety of film morphologies resulting from liquid-liquid dewetting in a dye – PCBM blend system.

 

 
   
 

Figure: A liquid double layer may destabilize due to interfacial forces acting between all layers (a). Depending on composition (b) and layer thickness (c) a variety of film morphologies can be produced. Reprinted with permission from Langmuir 2008, 24, 7316. Copyright 2008 American Chemical Society.

 

Reference:
J. Heier et al., Nanoscale structuring of semiconducting molecular blend films in the presence of mobile counterions, Langmuir 2008, 24, 7316.