Experimental contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of spreading of Newtonian fluids: effect of volume, viscosity and surfactant.

The dynamics of drop spreading of glycerol-water mixtures with and without surfactant on hydrophilic glass surfaces has been investigated. The influence of different factors, such as viscosity, drop volume and non-ionic alkyl (8-16) glucoside (Plantacare) surfactant concentration on the number and the nature of the spreading regimes is systematically investigated. More than 25 spreading experiments have been performed in order to obtain clear trends.

Use of surfactants to reduce the driving voltage of switchable optical elements based on electrowetting.

The advantage of using electrowetting as a novel principle for a reflective display has been previously demonstrated. The principle is based on the controlled two-dimensional movement of an oil/water interface across a hydrophobic fluoropolymer insulator. The main objective of this paper is to show experimentally the influence of surfactants on the electro-optic behavior of a single electrowetting pixel.