Wetting and dewetting of structured and imprinted surfaces

Wetting and dewetting of structured and imprinted surfaces is discussed from a theoretical point of view. An appropriate separation of length scales is used in order to eliminate irrelevant parameters from the theory. This leads to a general description of the wetting phase which can exhibit various morphologies such as droplets, channels or films. We discuss some general features of heterogeneous surfaces, extended surface domains, and line tension effects. We emphasize (i) the new concept of morphological wetting transitions, which occur both for small and for large surface domains; and (ii) the importance of studying the scale-dependence of the wetting morphologies as one zooms down into the nanoregime. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.