Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The spreading of liquid Ag and Ag-Mo alloys on molybdenum substrates has been studied using a drop-transfer setup. Even though initial spreading velocities as fast as ~1 m/s have been recorded in some experiments, a large variation in the spreading dynamics has been observed, and there is no unique relationship between the contact angle and the spreading velocity. This can be attributed to the formation of ridges at the triple junction, the movement of which controls spreading. The fastest spreading rates are consistent with results reported for low temperature liquids; these can be described using a molecular-kinetic model. Spreading kinetics and final contact angles were similar for pure silver and silver-molybdenum liquids.