Model of Meniscus Shape and Disjoining Pressure of Thin Liquid Films on Nanostructured Surfaces with Electrostatic Interactions

The effect of electrostatic interactions on the stability of thin liquid films on nanostructured surfaces is important in lubrication, wetting, and phase change but is poorly understood. In this study, a general, closed-form model is developed to account for both the effects of electrostatic and van der Waals interactions on meniscus shape and disjoining pressure for thin liquid films on nanostructured surfaces based on the minimization of free energy, the Derjaguin approximation, and the disjoining pressure theory for flat surfaces. The model is verified using the molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for a water–alumina system with both triangular and square nanostructures of varying depth and film thickness. Good agreement is obtained between MD results and model predictions, demonstrating the robustness of the analytical model. The results show that the electrostatic interactions enhance the disjoining pressure, thereby making the meniscus more conformal to the nanostructured surfaces. In addition, the electrostatic disjoining pressure is shown to increase with the nanostructure depth but decrease with the thin film thickness.