Wetting

"Wetness" redirects here. For the biological secretion, see subpreputial wetness.
For other uses, see Wetting (disambiguation).
For other uses of "Wet", see Wet (disambiguation).

Wetting is the ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface by displacing another substance or material – either a gas, or other liquid not miscible with the wetting liquid – due to the differential strength of intermolecular interactions with the surface.

The degree of wetting, or wettability, is dependent on the force balance between adhesive and cohesive forces, occurring when liquid and solid make contact in the presence of another physical phase. As such, wetting is of importance to bonding and adherence of substances in different phases.

The wetting power of a liquid, and surface forces contributing to its wettability, are also responsible for capillary action. Surfactants can be used to increase the wetting power of liquids (i.e., water) by reducing surface forces.

There are two types of wetting: non-reactive and reactive wetting.

Wetting has gained increased attention in nanotechnology and nanoscience research following the development of nanomaterials, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, and boron nitride nanomesh.

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