Heterogeneous Dewetting

Dewetting driven by van der Waals forces has been observed in many instances [25]. It is characterized by a wave pattern, as opposed to heterogeneously nucleated film break-up caused by imperfections in the film, leading to the formation of isolated holes that cause the dewetting of the film [26, 27],... 

Sharma, A., Reiter, G. Morphological phase transititnis in sptmtaneous dewetting of thin films on homogeneous and heterogeneous surfaces. Phase Transit. 75(4—5), 377-399 (2002)... 

U. Thiele, M. Mertig, and W. Pompe, Dewetting of an evaporating thin liquid film heterogeneous nucleation and surface instability, Phys. Rev. Lett, 80, 2869 [1998]. 

K. Kargupta, R. Konnur, and A. Sharma, Spontaneous dewetting and ordered patterns in evaporating thin liquid films on homogeneous and heterogeneous substrates, Langmuir, 17,1294 (2001). 

Dewetting has an impact on our everyday life, but only recently its mechanism has started to be fully understood. From this knowledge stems the technological control that is needed for applications in large-area micro- and nanofabrication, organic electronics, heterogeneous catalysis, and flow in mesoscopic channels. 

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