TY - JOUR A1 - Kriegl, Raphael A1 - Krenkel, Lars A1 - Shamonin (Chamonine), Mikhail T1 - Preservation of wetting ridges using field-induced plasticity of magnetoactive elastomers JF - Journal of Colloid and Interface Science N2 - Hypothesis. The presence of a wetting ridge is crucial for many wetting phenomena on soft substrates. Conventional experimental observations of a wetting ridge require permanent presence of a droplet. The magnetic field-induced plasticity effect (FIPE) of soft magnetoative elastomers (MAEs) allows one to overcome this limitation. Depositing a droplet onto an MAE surface and applying a magnetic field fixes the wetting ridge in place due to the FIPE. The droplet can be removed to investigate the ridge with ease using conventional optical methods. Experiments. The wetting ridge is observed on MAEs with different shear moduli and different material thicknesses by confocal laser scanning microscopy (LSM). The preservation quality of the ridge is analyzed for several values of magnetic field from 10 mT to 270 mT. To verify the plausibilty of results obtained, the measured shape is compared to a theoretical model by Style & Dufresne. Findings. Upon removal of the sessile droplet, the deformation remains embossed onto the MAE surface as long as the magnetic field remains applied. The height of the ridge peak on soft samples (effective shear modulus kPa) is close to the theoretical prediction for a magnetic flux density of 50 mT. The magnitude of the external magnetic field magnifies the height of the wetting ridge. KW - Wetting ridge KW - Droplet KW - Magnetoactive elastomer KW - Magnetorheological elastomer KW - Field-induced plasticity KW - Confocal laser scanning microscopy Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcis.2024.12.132 SN - 0021-9797 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Raphael Kriegl VL - 683 SP - 1019 EP - 1027 PB - Elsevier ER -