Simple relations for wettability of a droplet on a low-surface-energy solid

A treatment of the contact angle is very difficult because it exhibits a hysteresis such as dynamic contact angle and does not necessarily take a constant value. For understanding such complicated behavior of droplet, simple but fundamental consideration is very important. In the present study, wettability of a binary mixture droplet on low surface energy solid is experimentally and theoretically investigated. A simple theoretical model is applied to the droplet behavior considering a situation before and after touching the solid surface from a view point of thermodynamic surface energy. The model can explain the relationships among the contact angle (theta), surface energy of liquid (sigma(1g)) and the droplet radius (R).