Abstract
The efficiency of all known cleansing methods drastically decreases when particles smaller than about 1 μm are to be removed from a solid substrate. In this paper it is shown both theoretically and experimentally that the passage of a liquid-gas phase boundary along the substrate may result in particle removal for particles bonded to the surface by physical forces. Experimentally it appears that, under properly chosen wetting conditions of the particles and the substrate, the adherence of the particles to the liquid-gas phase boundary is stronger than their adherence to the substrate. Contrary to all other cleansing methods, the efficiency of particle removal by moving phase boundaries is in theory independent of the particle size. An equation of motion is derived by taking into account van der Waals, surface tension and viscous forces. The solutions of this equation exhibit the trends observed experimentally.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 183-209 |
| Number of pages | 27 |
| Journal | Philips Journal of Research |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 2-3 |
| Publication status | Published - 1989 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- cleaning
- contact angle
- flow
- perturbation techniques
- surface tension
- viscosity
- wetting