Wet and Wild: Adventurous Wetting Expeditions on Tailored Surfaces of Self-Assembled Monolayers

Surface wettability is a macroscopic manifestation of molecular-level competition at the three-phase contact line, where a wetting fluid and the surrounding phase compete for adsorption on a solid surface. Its dependence on surface chemistry, however, extends far beyond the polar nature of the surface terminal groups. In this perspective, self-assembled monolayers of organic molecules were chosen as model organic surfaces to unveil how subtle changes in chemical and structural features at the outermost molecular level can exert a profound influence on the movement of the three-phase contact line, thus giving rise to a series of intriguing wetting behaviors in defiance of conventional thermodynamic expectations. We wish that this perspective offers a more holistic view of molecular-level correlation between surface chemistry and wettability and serves as a stepping stone toward more advanced understanding and control of surface wetting phenomena.