2024 Faculty Courses School of Materials and Chemical Technology Department of Materials Science and Engineering Graduate major in Materials Science and Engineering

Advanced Course in Wettability Control of Solid Surface

Academic unit or major: Graduate major in Materials Science and Engineering
Instructor(s): Akira Nakajima
Class Format: Lecture (Face-to-face)
Media-enhanced courses: -
Day of week/Period (Classrooms): 5-6 Mon / 5-6 Thu
Class: -
Course Code: MAT.C506
Number of credits: 200
Course offered: 2024
Offered quarter: 3Q
Syllabus updated: Mar 14, 2025
Language: English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

On rainy days, some raindrops run down the surface of umbrellas, but others stay in place. What's the reason for these types of differences? What properties should be studied and improved? Static wetting of solids has been mainly dealt with in colloid and interface science, and dynamic wetting of solids in fluid mechanics and mechanical engineering. This course will cover science that bridges the gap between those two in order to "control static and dynamic wetting on solid surfaces". This is an "interactive" course. For the first 11 classes, students will learn the science of wetting, and then everyone will create and present research proposals on wetting control. Students will deepen their understanding of the "wetting of solid surfaces" through relevant debate.
The purpose of this course is for students to gain an understanding of the effect the structure of solid surfaces and their size and layers, the ratio of size and change of chemical composition and their distributions, etc. have on the wetting of solid surfaces, such that students can build a foundation for controlling these factors to produce desired properties. Students will learn the skills for applying knowledge from surface chemistry and interfacial chemistry related to solids.

Course description and aims

By the end of this course, students will be able to :
1) Understand fundamentals of surface wettability.
2) Acquire the knowledge on the technologies on surface wettability control and its evaluation.
3) Apply the fundamental knowledge on wettability to the design of various surface functional materials.

Keywords

wettability, contact angle, sliding angle, surface energy, Young's equation

Competencies

Specialist skills
Intercultural skills
Communication skills
Critical thinking skills
Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

The course contents will be provided in 11 classes, then students should give presentation on the research proposal about the topics on surface wettability. The presentation, questions to other presenters, and final version of the proposal (within 10 sheets) are evaluated for grading.

Course schedule/Objectives

	Course schedule	Objectives
Class 1	Introduction-fundamentals of solid surface: course outline, definition of surface, difference between static and dynamic wettability	Outline of the class is presented.
Class 2	Fundamentals of solid surface: ideal surface, well-defined surface, real surface, surface relaxation, surface reconstruction, surface roughness, adsorption equilibrium	Classification of the solid surface structure is presented.
Class 3	Various solid surface: inorganic materials, organic materials, good solvent, poor solvent, LTT structure, self-assembled monolayer	Surface characteristics on various solids are explained.
Class 4	Surface energy I: thermodynamics on wetting, Young-Dupre equation, contact angle, Gorofalco-Good equation	The origin and characteristics of surface energy are presented.
Class 5	Surface energy II: Berthelot theory, Fowkes theory, surface energy measurement	The origin and characteristics of surface energy are presented.
Class 6	Surface energy III: Laplacian pressure, Kelvin equation, capillary length, line tension, effect of surface roughness	Effect of surface roughness on the wettability of solid surface is presented.
Class 7	Dynamic wettability I: limit of static wettability, Furmidge equation, contact angle hysteresis and sliding angle	Difference between static wettability and dynamic one is explained.
Class 8	Dynamic wettability II: pinning, sliding mode, particle image velocimetry	Evaluation of dynamic wettability and the factors that affect the property are explained.
Class 9	Dynamic wettability III: sliding and evaporation, effects of surface energy distribution and its morphology	Effect of surface energy distribution on the dynamic wettability is presented.
Class 10	Wettability control by external fields: electric field, magnetic field, wind blowing	Explain the effects of mechanisms other than gravity such as electric fields, magnetic fields, and wind on the dynamic behavior of water drops.
Class 11	Functional materials using wettability : superwettability and anti-snow adhesion	Recent study on superwettability and surface functional materials are presented.
Class 12	Research proposal presentation by students1: surface structure and chemistry design	Preparation of presentation and resume. Discussion on the presented topics.
Class 13	Research proposal presentation by students2: applying external field	Preparation of presentation and resume. Discussion on the presented topics.
Class 14	Research proposal presentation by students3: other functional materials	Preparation of presentation and resume. Discussion on the presented topics.

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

No text book. Original materials will be presented by the instructor.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Akira Nakajima "Kotaihyoumen no Nure Seigyo" Uchida Rokakuho Press. Tokyo Japan

Evaluation methods and criteria

Research proposal: presentation 30%, questions to other presenters 20%, final term paper (within 10 sheets) 50%.

Related courses

MAT.C408 ： Advanced Course of Surface Chemistry on Inorganic Materials
MAT.C313 ： Interface Chemistry

Prerequisites

Fundamental understanding of thermodynamics (undergraduate level), English competency for understanding English lecture