Coarse-Grained Interaction of a Fluid with a Physically-Patterned Solid Surface: Application to Nanodroplet Wetting

We derive coarse-grained potentials to describe the interaction of a physically adsorbed, fluid-phase atom with a solid surface that is patterned with an array of rectangular or cylindrical pillars. The coarse-grained potentials are used in molecular dynamics simulations to probe the wetting of a Lennard-Jones liquid droplet on various patterned solid surfaces. Our results, which indicate that surface patterning can significantly influence wetting, are in agreement with previous studies.