The role of liquid–substrate interactions on wetting in metallic embedded atom method systems

Abstract We examined the atomistic mechanisms involved in metal-on-metal wetting using an embedded atom method (EAM) silver–copper system as a model of a generic metallic system. In simulations of liquid silver wetting a static copper substrate, the formation of an adsorbed layer of silver on the substrate preceded true wetting. In contrast, no adsorbed layer formed in simulations of liquid copper wetting a static silver substrate. We examined structural correlations in these systems and found that the silver-on-copper system had a more favorable liquid–substrate interaction than the copper-on-silver system. We show that the substrate plus adsorbate represents the equilibrium substrate surface during “moist” spreading treated by the Young equation and we compare the thermodynamics of wetting in these two systems.