The effect of melt composition on the wetting angle between silicate melts and olivine

The wetting angle between silicate melts containing Ca, Li, Na, or K and olivine single crystals have been measured as part of an investigation of the dependence of the solid-liquid interfacial energy on melt composition and olivine orientation. The wetting angle increases with increasing silica content of the melt on (100) surfaces, but decreases with increasing silica content on (010) and (001) surfaces. For a given silica content, the wetting angle on (100) decreases in going from Ca to Li to Na to K, while the wetting angle on (010) and (001) increases in going from Ca to K-bearing melts. Based on published values for liquid-vapor interfacial energies, the observed changes in wetting angle with changes in melt composition indicate that the solid-liquid interfacial energy increases with increasing silica content of the melt for the (100) surface. However, for (010) and (001) surfaces, the variation of the solid-liquid interfacial energy with silica content depends upon whether Ca or K is present in the melt. In addition, the solid-liquid interfacial energy depends upon the orientation of the olivine in the following manner: γ_sl⁽⁰¹⁰⁾≤γ_sl⁽⁰⁰¹⁾<γ_sl⁽¹⁰⁰⁾.