Investigation on the Wetting Behavior of 3C-SiC Surfaces: Theory and Modeling

CU Gonzalez-Valle and S Kumar and B Ramos-Alvarado, JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C, 122, 7179-7186 (2018).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b12271

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a promising material for high-power and high- frequency electronics due to its wide band gap, large breakdown field, and high thermal conductivity. Several applications of micro- and nanoelectronics are found in aqueous environments; thus, it is important to understand the atomic-scale interactions between SiC and water, as these interactions govern the transport processes at solid-liquid interfaces. In an effort to characterize the solid-liquid interactions, the wetting behavior of 3C-SiC was numerically investigated. The wettability of two crystallographic planes ((100) and (111)) was characterized, allowing to have silicon or carbon terminations. It was found that the crystallographic planes as well as the atomic surface terminations play an important role in the wetting behavior of 3C-SiC. Higher hydrophilicity was observed for the Si-terminated surfaces as well as for the SiC(111) crystallographic plane. A combination of a mean-field model of wettability and an analysis of the interfacial liquid structuring led to explain the wetting behavior of the different crystallographic planes (silicon- or carbon-terminated). These numerical and theoretical findings underscore the importance of proper modeling strategies when using wetting behavior as the framework for the modeling of interfaces.

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