ABSTRACT
Wetting has a very long and fascinating history. The solid-liquid interactions are related to physics, but chemistry is deeply involved at the interface. The flow of the liquid in contact with a solid refers to fluid mechanics, and the solid itself is described in terms of material science. More than 200 years ago, Young and Laplace derived from macroscopic arguments the basic equations describing the equilibrium configuration of partially wetting liquids. Starting about 50 years ago, the dynamics of wetting became of central interest. Nowadays, still fundamental question remain unresolved. Most of the open questions are related to the microscopic characteristics of the considered materials for wetting. Young’s equation, for example, has been validated at the microscopic scale only recently [1].
