Spherical solid model system: Exact evaluation of the van der Waals interaction between a microscopic or submacroscopic spherical solid and a deformable fluid interface

► An improved spherical solid model system is developed in this work. ► vdW-induced deformation of an infinite plane fluid interface interacting with an approaching microscopic or submacroscopic spherical solid is studied. ► Major advantage of this theory is it successfully rules out the limitations of previous corresponding work based on the Derjaguin approximation for cases of the microscopic or submacroscopic solids.