Analysis of stability of a thin evaporating water film in the presence of a solvable surfactant on the free surface

Evaporation of a thin layer of polar liquid (water) with the free surface on a solid substrate is studied theoretically. A solvable surfactant is present on the free liquid-gas interface. The surface energy at the solid-liquid contact is a nonmonotonic function of the layer thickness and is the sum of the long-range (Van der Waals) and the short-range interactions. The effect of the solvable surfactant on the stability of motion of the evaporation front of the thin liquid film is studied in the long-wave approximation using the system of the Navier–Stokes equations.