Filling a nanoporous substrate by dewetting of thin films

D Schebarchov and B Lefevre and WRC Somerville and SC Hendy, NANOSCALE, 5, 1949-1954 (2013).

DOI: 10.1039/c3nr32649g

Following a simple thermodynamic model, which predicts that an array of non-wettable pores can be filled by dewetting of sufficiently thin films, we use molecular dynamics to simulate the rupture of nanometre- thick liquid Au films on nanoporous substrates. Our simulations clearly exhibit spinodal dewetting and hole nucleation, and some of the metal is indeed absorbed by non-wettable pores solely as a virtue of the Laplace pressure acting on dewetted droplets and rivulet-like structures. Finally, we show that the fraction of absorbed Au can be increased through patterning of the initial film.

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