Effects of Nanodroplet Sizes on Wettability, Electrowetting Transition, and Spontaneous Dewetting Transition on Nanopillar-Arrayed Surfaces

In this study, the wetting and dewetting behaviors of water nanodroplets containing various molecule numbers on nanopillar-arrayed surfaces in the presence or absence of an external electric field are investigated via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, aiming to examine whether there is a scale effect. The results show that, in the absence of an electric field, nanodroplets on coexisting Cassie/Wenzel surfaces may be in the Cassie or the Wenzel state depending on their initial states, and apparent contact angles of the Cassie or Wenzel nanodroplets increase monotonously with increasing the droplet size. Energy analysis shows that on the same coexisting Cassie/Wenzel surface, when an electric field is imposed, a small nanodroplet possesses a lower energy barrier separating the Cassie state from the Wenzel state. Therefore, the small nanodroplet is easier to collapse into the Wenzel state. Moreover, the spontaneous Wenzel-to-Cassie dewetting transition is not observed for the nanodroplets after the removal of the electric field because the Wenzel state is a globally stable energetic state. With the same pillar geometry, both the wetting transition and the dewetting transition are significantly modified for liquids with higher intrinsic contact angles. The energy barrier of the wetting transition increases for both the large and small nanodroplets, meaning that the Cassie state becomes more robust. The energy curve shows that the Wenzel state of the large nanodroplet has higher energy so that the droplet can return to the Cassie state when removing the electric field. Intriguingly, although the small Wenzel nanodroplet has lower energy in the presence of the electric field, the dewetting transition still occurs. The increased solid–liquid interfacial tension when removing the electric field is responsible for this abnormal result. The wetting and dewetting transitions follow different energy pathways, leading to a hysteresis energy loop. There exists a critical water molecule number separating the unstable/stable Wenzel configurations, above which the Cassie state is energetically favorable and the dewetting transition can occur spontaneously after removing the electric field.