Thin films of van der Waals fluid: From interface interactions to wetting transitions

We present a theoretical study of wetting phenomena and interactions between liquid–vapor interfaces based on the local density functional theory. The focus is mostly on the impact of long-range van der Waals interactions both within the fluid and between the fluid and substrate. For the latter, we consider two models – hard wall and soft wall approximations – differing by the role of steric effects and leading to a qualitatively different character of phase transitions. We compute numerically the disjoining and conjoining potentials (which are important dynamically for spreading, spinodal dewetting, and coarsening in thin films, as well as resolution of interfacial singularities), and loci of intermediate and complete wetting transitions as functions of the Hamaker constant and temperature. We find that taking into account short-range interactions is essential for the description of wetting transitions in the soft wall limit. We derive an analytical form of the disjoining potential and analyze it in the context of the complete, frustrated and partial wetting.