Many industrial and biological interfacial processes, such as welding and breathing depend directly on wettability and surface tension phenomena. The most common methods to control the wettability are based on modifying the properties of the fluid or the substrate. The present work focuses on the use of high-frequency acoustic waves (ultrasound) for the same purpose. It is well known that ultrasound can effectively clean a surface by acoustic cavitation, hence ultrasonic cleaning technology. Besides the cleaning process itself, many authors have observed an important wettability enhancement when liquids are exposed to low and high (ultrasonic) frequency vibration. Ultrasound goes one step further as it can instantly adjust the contact angle by tuning the vibration amplitude, but there is still a lack of comprehension about the physical principles that explain this phenomenon. To shed light on it, a thermodynamic model describing how ultrasound decreases the contact angle in a three-phase wetting system has been developed. Moreover, an analytical and experimental research has been carried out in order to demonstrate that ultrasound is an important competitor to surfactants in terms of energy efficiency and environmental friendliness.

许多工业和生物界面过程，例如焊接和呼吸，直接取决于润湿性和表面张力现象。控制润湿性的最常见方法是基于改变流体或基材的性质。目前的工作重点是使用高频声波（超声波）来达到相同的目的。众所周知，超声波可以通过声空化作用有效地清洁表面，因此产生了超声波清洗技术。除了清洁过程本身之外，许多作者还观察到，当液体暴露于低频和高频（超声波）频率振动时，润湿性会显着增强。超声波更进一步，它可以通过调整振动幅度来即时调整接触角，但人们对解释这一现象的物理原理仍然缺乏理解。为了阐明这一点，我们开发了一个热力学模型来描述超声波如何降低三相润湿系统中的接触角。此外，还进行了分析和实验研究，以证明超声波在能源效率和环境友好性方面是表面活性剂的重要竞争对手。