Wetting and displacement of three-dimensional and two-dimensional layers on a foreign substrate

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Abstract
The criterion of wetting of a two-dimensional adsorbed phase depends not only on the difference between adhesion and cohesion energies, as commonly assumed for three-dimensional liquid films, but also on the chemical potential of the medium as determined by the pressure of the bulk vapor, which for an adsorption system need not be in equillibrium with bulk liquid. Good wetting, or high spreading pressure, is achieved when the chemical potential of the medium (bulk vapor) deviates considerably from the chemical potential obtaining at equilibrium between a two-dimensional condensed layer, or two-dimensional gas, and the bulk vapor. This statement is important for the interpretation of displacements of layers of different substances on the same substrate through coadsorption.