Wetting and Capillarity in Complex Systems

The growing interest in the properties of interfaces involving complex fluids, such as colloidal suspensions, organic ionic liquids, electrolytes, or liquid crystals, in contact with patterned or responsive substrates is nurtured by the development of techniques capable to prepare substrates with designed and well-controlled micro- or nano-structures. In addition to its relevance for basic research, a comprehensive understanding of such systems is important in view of potential applications, e.g., creating novel super-lyophobic materials, various "lab-on-a-chip" devices, or the fabrication of synthetic micro-engines. The underlying common feature in all these examples is that a wealth of length and time scales is introduced by hierarchical structures of substrates, by the sizes and shapes of the particles forming the complex liquids, or by the time and lengths scales of responsive substrates. Understanding such intrinsically complex systems requires innovative approaches, which bundle experimental, theoretical, and computational efforts. The workshop aims at bringing together experienced scientists with complementary skills in the fields of wetting phenomena and capillarity.

Topics:
- wetting of and flow on structured surfaces
- wetting by complex fluids (e.g., colloidal suspensions, emulsions, liquid crystals, ionic liquids, electrolytes, polymers)
- active interfaces: responsive surfaces, reactive wetting, active fluids and active colloids
- colloids at fluid-fluid interfaces: effective interactions and collective phenomena