Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Surfactant self-assembly at the liquid-vapor, solid-liquid, and solid-vapor interfaces controls the wetting behavior of advancing surfactant solutions. While different surfactants exhibit different static and dynamic wetting properties, we show that these behaviors can be understood through an examination of microscopic structures driven by surfactant-surface interactions. We examine surfactant solutions exhibiting complete and partial static wetting as well as spreading by dendritic pattern formation and unsteady, stick-jump behavior. In each case, the observed behavior is related to the structure of the surfactant assemblies in the vicinity of the contact line.