Point tension in adsorption at a chemically inhomogeneous substrate in two dimensions

Abstract

We study adsorption of liquid at a one-dimensional substrate composed of a single chemical inhomogeneity of width $2L$ placed on an otherwise homogeneous, planar, solid surface. The excess point free energy $\eta (L,T)$ associated with the adsorbed layer's inhomogeneity induced by the substrate's chemical structure is calculated within exact continuum transfer-matrix approach. It is shown that the way $\eta (L,T)$ varies with $L$ depends sensitively on the temperature regime. It exhibits logarithmic divergence as a function of $L$ in the limit $L\to\infty$ for temperatures such that the chemical inhomogeneity is completely wetted by the liquid. In the opposite case $\eta (L,T)$ converges for large $L$ to $2\eta_0$, where $\eta_0$ is the corresponding point tension, and the dominant $L$-dependent correction to $2\eta_0$ decays exponentially. The interaction between the liquid layer inhomogeneities at $-L$ and $L$ for the two temperature regimes is discussed and compared to earlier mean-field theory predictions.