Wetting of binary powder mixtures

The wetting process involved when a liquid droplet comes into contact with a mixture of particles is a complex phenomenon which is often understood by reference to Cassie-Baxter theory. However, various authors have applied the Cassie-Baxter theory for the prediction of contact angles on two-component mixtures without success. We hypothesise that the main difficulty in applying the Cassie-Baxter theory to mixtures is that if the particles differ in size, it is possible for the small particles to coat the large particles, so reducing the available surface area of the large particles. This leads to the view that bulk volume fractions are not good estimates of surface fractions of the components within the mixture. We argue that the Cassie-Baxter theory over represents the influence of large particles and that below a certain critical volume fraction they exert no influence. We present a simple geometrical model that relates the critical surface coverage volume fraction to the Sauter mean particle size of the binary mixture components. As a consequence, the wetting behaviour can be determined from the bulk volume fractions and the calculated critical surface coverage volume fraction, by means of a simple geometric model. We show that the simple model describes the five two-components systems reported here and a further four systems reported in the literature, irrespective of whether the larger or small particles are hydrophobic/hydrophilic. With this model, it is possible to predict the wetting behaviour of mixtures of particles that coat each other using very simple characterisation methods, so reducing the development time in the creation of formulations in the pharmaceutical industry.