Surface-directed phase separation (SDPS) is a nonequilibrium phase transition of mixtures induced by the wetting behavior of the surface.In this paper
the phase morphologies
evolution dynamics
wetting layer formation mechanisms in SDPS and the novel phase structures of SDPS under the spatial confinement have been reviewed.The dynamical models for SDPS based on the Cahn- Hilliard-Cook theory as well as the progress for the numerical simulation by using these models have also been introduced.