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Updated: Jun 29, 2026

Surface Properties of Synthesized Nanoporous Carbon and Silica Matrices
Published on: March 27, 2019
Influence of roughness on capillary forces between hydrophilic surfaces
P J van Zwol1, G Palasantzas, J Th M De Hosson
1Department of Applied Physics, Materials Innovation Institute and Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Capillary forces have been measured by atomic force microscopy in the plate-sphere setup between gold, borosilicate glass, GeSbTe, titanium, and UV-irradiated amorphous titanium-dioxide surfaces. The force measurements were performed as a function contact time and surface roughness in the range 0.2-15 nm rms and relative humidity ranging between 2% and 40%. It is found that even for the lowest attainable relative humidity ( approximately 2%+/-1%) very large capillary forces are still present. The latter suggests the persistence of a nanometers-thick adsorbed water layer that acts as a capillary bridge between contacting surfaces. Moreover, we found a significantly different scaling behavior of the force with rms roughness for materials with different hydrophilicity as compared to gold-gold surfaces.
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