Wettability of Nematic Liquid Crystals

Organic liquids such as nematic liquid crystals should wet solids with high surface energies like mica, yet they generally do not. In the model proposed here, the affinity to wet the solid in form of Hamaker forces is opposed by elastic effects due to nematic order. Results predict correctly that such liquids show small contact angles and the formation of ultrathin liquid films ahead of the bulk drops. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.