Boundary slip as a result of a prewetting transition

Some fluids exhibit anomalously low friction when flowing against a certain solid wall. To recover the viscosity of a bulk fluid, slip at the wall is usually postulated. On a macroscopic level, a large slip length can be explained as a formation of a film of gas or phase-separated "lubricant'' with lower viscosity between the fluid and the solid wall. Here we justify such an assumption in terms of a prewetting transition. In our model the thin-thick film transition together with the viscosity contrast gives rise to a large boundary slip. The calculated value of the slip length has a jump at the prewetting transition temperature which depends on the strength of the fluid-surface interaction (contact angle). Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the slip length is nonmonotonous. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.