PRL 114, 039601 (2015)
PHYSICAL
REVIEW
LETTERS
week ending 23 JANUARY 2015
Wetting Transitions in Terms of Effective Potentials There is a substantial increase o f interest in the properties o f w ater in contact with various substrates [1-3]. In Ref. [4], Friedm an, Khalil, and Taborek present experi m ental results on first-order w etting transitions o f water at solid substrates. As discussed below, their extended theoretical interpretation, which is supposed to facilitate an understanding o f the reported experim ental observations, suffers from conceptual flaws and inconsistencies. Reference [4] provides data for the contact angle 0 , which fulfills Young’s m acroscopic equation cos 0 = 1 + (Asv - n si - 0\w)/o\y, where
PHYSICAL
REVIEW
LETTERS
week ending 23 JANUARY 2015
Wetting Transitions in Terms of Effective Potentials There is a substantial increase o f interest in the properties o f w ater in contact with various substrates [1-3]. In Ref. [4], Friedm an, Khalil, and Taborek present experi m ental results on first-order w etting transitions o f water at solid substrates. As discussed below, their extended theoretical interpretation, which is supposed to facilitate an understanding o f the reported experim ental observations, suffers from conceptual flaws and inconsistencies. Reference [4] provides data for the contact angle 0 , which fulfills Young’s m acroscopic equation cos 0 = 1 + (Asv - n si - 0\w)/o\y, where
