ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION In all natural and technological systems that consist of mixtures of solid and liquid phases, the interplay between interphase boundary energies
affects the extent to which the solid and liquid phases come into contact. It is these surface energy interactions that produce the macroscopically observable wetting behavior. Enhanced wetting promotes such everyday occurrences as the heterogeneous nucleation of rain drops on airborne dust particles or the use of detergents to improve the cleansing action of water in washing machines, whereas wetting prevention is the objective of every good car wax. Because the wetting behavior of liquids subtly or overtly influences both everyday phenomena and technologically sophisticated manufacturing processes, it has been extensively studied. Many excellent reviews on this topic exist, a few of which are included in the reference list [1-4].
