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interface. In this method, the rod is oriented perpendicular to the interface, and the force exerted on it is measured. Based on the work of Padday, this method finds wide use in the preparation and monitoring of LangmuirBlodgett films, ink & coating development, pharmaceutical screening, and academic research
Du Nouy Padday rod going into liquid showing the maximum force pull of water.
3. Wilhelmy plate
A Wilhelmy plate is a thin plate that is used to measure equilibrium surface or interfacial tension at an airliquid or liquidliquid interface. In this method, the plate is oriented perpendicular to the interface, and the force exerted on it is measured. Based on the work of Ludwig Wilhelmy, this method finds wide use in the preparation and monitoring of Langmuir Blodgett films.
where d is the tube diameter. The mass m of the drop hanging from the end of the tube can be found by equating the force due to gravity (Fg = mg) with the component of the surface tension in the vertical direction (F sin ) giving the formula
where is the angle of contact with the tube, and g is the acceleration due to gravity. The limit of this formula, as goes to 90, gives the maximum weight of a pendant drop for a liquid with a given surface tension, .
This relationship is the basis of a convenient method of measuring surface tension, commonly used in the petroleum industry. More sophisticated methods are available when the surface tension is unknown that consider the developing shape of the pendant as the drop grows. The pendant drop test illustrated
Spinning drop method (rotating drop method) is one of the methods that is used to measure interfacial tension. Basically, measurements are carried out in a rotating horizontal tube which contains a dense fluid. One drop of a less dense liquid is placed inside the fluid. Since the rotation of the horizontal tube creates a centrifugal force towards the tube walls, the liquid drop starts to be elongated and this elongation stops when the interfacial tension and centrifugal forces are balanced. Values obtained at this equilibrium point are used to estimate surface tension of the particular liquid by using appropriate correlations. A device called spinning drop tensiometer is generally utilized for this purpose. Spinning drop method is usually preferred for the accurate measurements of surface tensions below 102 mN/m. This is because of the limitations in the correlations where a sufficient elongation of the liquid is required. It refers to either using the fluids with low interfacial tension or working at very high angular velocities. This method is widely used in many different applications such as measuring the interfacial tension of polymer blends and copolymers.
7. Stalagmometric method
The stalagmometric method is one of the most common methods for measuring surface tension. The principle is to measure the weight of the drops of the fluid falling from the capillary glass tube, and then calculate the surface tension of the specific fluid which we are interested in. We know the weight of each drop of the liquid by counting the number of the drops falling out. From this we can determine the surface tension.
An illustration of the sessile drop technique with a liquid droplet partially wetting a solid substrate . C is the contact angle, and , , represent the solidgas, gasliquid, and liquidsolid interfaces, respectively.