First-Order and Critical Wetting of Alkanes on Water

Ellipsometry measurements of the wetting behavior of different alkanes on water show a sequence of two wetting transitions: a first-order (discontinuous) transition followed by a critical (continuous) one. We report temperature-induced wetting transitions for different alkanes and a novel pressure-induced wetting transition for an alkane mixture. The experiments enable us to determine the global wetting phase diagram as a function of chain length and temperature which we subsequently calculate theoretically. The two transition lines are found to be approximately parallel, in accordance with basic theoretical arguments.