Nanoparticle-tuned spreading behavior of nanofluid droplets on the solid substrate

YQ Li and FC Wang and H Liu and HA Wu, MICROFLUIDICS AND NANOFLUIDICS, 18, 111-120 (2015).

DOI: 10.1007/s10404-014-1422-y

Nanofluids, which are the term for suspensions of nanometer-sized structures, have recently been extensively used in a rapid increasing number of applications. In this work, spreading behaviors of water-based nanofluid droplets were investigated via molecular dynamics simulation. Influencing factors such as nanoparticle volume fraction and surface wettability were discussed in details on the atomic scale. Our simulation results demonstrated that the dynamics spreading of nanofluids can be effectively regulated by adjusting these factors. Based on the scaling law R(t) alpha t(1/n), we proposed a competitive mechanism analysis among surface tension, viscous force and disjoining pressure, which describes the power relationship between contact radius R and spreading time t. These findings indicate that the nanoparticle- tuned spreading behavior of nanofluid droplets can be extensively used for diverse applications.

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