An Equilibrium Lattice Model of Wetting on Rough Substrates

We consider a semi-infinite 3-dimensional Ising system with a rough wall to describe the effect of the roughness r of the substrate on wetting. We show that the difference of wall free energies Δτ(r)=τ_AW(r)−τ_BW(r) of the two phases behaves like Δτ(r)∼rΔτ(1), where r=1 characterizes a purely flat surface, confirming at low enough temperature and small roughness the validity of Wenzel’s law, cos θ(r)≈r cos θ(1), which relates the contact angle θ of a sessile droplet to the roughness of the substrate.