Determination of the solid surface critical exponent β1 from contact-angle variation on approach to a wetting...

The three-phase contact angle (θ) for the system cyclohexane/aniline/quartz has been measured from drop shapes as a function of temperature on approach to the cyclohexane/aniline upper consolute solution temperature Tc. The experiments employed exacting criteria previously established for thermodynamic-quality measurements at fluid interfaces. A first-order wetting transition from partial wetting to complete wetting was observed at a temperature Tw, 2.12 K below Tc. The contact angle vanishes at Tw, scaling as cos θ ∼ |T - Tc|(β1-μ) for T < Tw and cos θ = 1.0 for Tw < T < Tc. The experimental results give a value for β1 = 0.74 ± 0.03, in agreement with theoretical calculations. The data clearly rule out higher order contributions to the change in the contact angle near the critical point for this system. These results are in marked contrast to previous measurements on this system from measurements of capillary rise and meniscus curvature.