Introduction
The development of systems utilizing ink, slurry and other types of liquid-based materials as well as understanding of processes occurring at surfaces and interfaces require knowledge on fundamental aspects of wetting.
The goal for this tutorial is to provide a guidance through important physical parameters and laws governing formation of liquid surfaces and liquid-solid interaction under contact of a liquid with solid substrate.
Such knowledge will make it possible to foresee behavior of the liquid when deposited on the surface as well as to modify the surface properties towards obtaining the desired wetting parameters. As an example, one can see how a water droplet wets the surface of one polymer showing increased level of hydrophilicity (contact angle decreases from 45° to 7°) on specific surface treatment, while in case of other polymer its surfaces becomes more and more hydrophobic under the same specific treatment (contact angle reaches > 160°).
