Filling a nanoporous substrate by dewetting of thin films

Following a simple thermodynamic model, which predicts that an array of non-wettable pores can be filled by dewetting of sufficiently thin films, we use molecular dynamics to simulate the rupture of nanometre-thick liquid Au films on nanoporous substrates. Our simulations clearly exhibit spinodal dewetting and hole nucleation, and some of the metal is indeed absorbed by non-wettable pores solely as a virtue of the Laplace pressure acting on dewetted droplets and rivulet-like structures. Finally, we show that the fraction of absorbed Au can be increased through patterning of the initial film. We show that, in theory, dewetting of a metastable thin film on a non-wettable porous substrate can lead to pore filling.