Abstract
Wettability of liquid indium and liquid bismuth on a solid iron was investigated to elucidate their different behaviors relating to the unusual wetting phenomena. Sessile drop method was performed to measure the contact angle of each liquid metal on the flat solid iron in H2 from 700 to 1100 K. In addition, we observed wetting behaviors of liquid indium and liquid bismuth on the surface-porous iron substrate. It was found from these experiments that liquid indium wetted and penetrated into the porous layer at 773 K. On the other hand, liquid bismuth did not infiltrate the porous substrate at temperatures lower than about 950 K. The wetting behavior of these liquid metals on the porous substrates is supposed to be related to the wettability of each metal on the flat solid iron.
