On the kinetics of the rapid spreading of droplets of aqueous trisiloxane solutions over hydrophobic substrates

A theory is developed for the spreading of small droplets of aqueous trisil oxane solutions containing vesicles and forming metastable beta-films of mi cron thickness on the thinning of a drop. On the assumption that the profil e of a spreading drop is sloping, hydrodynamic solutions were obtained, whi ch include the gradient of the film disjoining pressure as the moving force . In accordance with the De Gennes theory, the spreading of such droplets t erminates by the formation of a flat thick film of a finite radius. Satisfa ctory agreement was obtained between the calculation results and the publis hed experimental data.