Thin film dynamics with surfactant phase transition

Abstract

A thin liquid film covered with an insoluble surfactant in the vicinity of a first-order phase transition is discussed. Within the lubrication approximation we derive two coupled equations to describe the height profile of the film and the surfactant density. Thermodynamics of the surfactant is incorporated via a Cahn-Hilliard type free-energy functional which can be chosen to describe a transition between two stable phases of different surfactant density. Within this model, a linear stability analysis of stationary homogeneous solutions is performed, and drop formation in a film covered with surfactant in the lower density phase is investigated numerically in one and two spatial dimensions.