Comparative molecular dynamics study of simple and polymer nanodroplet spreading

A comparative study of simple and polymer liquid spreading was carried out using isothermal molecular dynamics. In both cases, droplets were composed of 3000 atoms or interacting centers of chain-like molecules. To investigate the spreading mechanism, the labeled atom technique was used. It was found that a single mechanism is not adequate to the simple nanodroplet spreading. Polymer droplet spreading involved a special mode of chains reptation, i.e. their slippage along the substrate. Kinetic curves for the first (lower) monolayer radius r1, i.e. dependences of r1 versus time, are analyzed for the cases of simple and polymer nanodroplet spreading.