Competition between Collapse and Breakup in Nanometer-Sized Thin Rings Using Molecular Dynamics and Continuum Modeling

TD Nguyen and M Fuentes-Cabrera and JD Fowlkes and JA Diez and AG Gonzalez and L Kondic and PD Rack, LANGMUIR, 28, 13960-13967 (2012).

DOI: 10.1021/la303093f

We consider nanometer-sized fluid annuli (rings) deposited on a solid substrate and ask whether these rings break up into droplets due to the instability of Rayleigh-Plateau-type modified by the presence of the substrate, or collapse to a central drop due to the presence of azimuthal curvature. The analysis is carried out by a combination of atomistic molecular dynamics simulations and a continuum model based on a long-wave limit of Navier-Stokes equations. We find consistent results between the two approaches, and demonstrate characteristic dimension regimes which dictate the assembly dynamics.

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