Meniscus and viscous forces during separation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces with liquid-mediated contacts

Adhesion due to the formation of meniscus bridges has been of interest since the early 20th century. Extensive studies have been carried out analytically and numerically. Adhesive or repulsive forces contributed by meniscus and adhesive viscous forces can be significant and become one of the main reliability issues when the contacting surfaces are smooth and/or when the normal load is small, as is common for micro/nanodevices. Previous numerical studies mainly focus on static meniscus analysis for hydrophilic surfaces. More recently, analysis of meniscus and viscous forces during separation of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces with symmetric and asymmetric contact angles have been carried out. These studies are useful to understand the relative roles of meniscus and viscous forces during the separation process. In this paper, a comprehensive review of analytical and numerical modeling of the meniscus and viscous forces are presented. The analyses for both forces during normal and tangential separation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic smooth or rough surfaces with symmetric and asymmetric contact angles, and viscous forces during tangential separation are presented. The analyses provide a fundamental understanding of the physics of the separation process and insight into the relationships between meniscus and viscous forces. Implications of these analyses in macro/micro/nanotechnologies are discussed.