Surface energy of solids

There are numerous techniques which provide information related to the surface energy of solids. A large array of high-vacuum, destructive and non-destructive techniques is available, and most of them yield information on the atomic and chemical composition of the surface and layers just beneath it. These are reviewed elsewhere [83,84] and are beyond the scope of the present chapter. From the standpoint of their effect on wettability and adhesion, the property of greatest importance appears to be the Lifshitz-van der Waals ( dispersion) surface energy, ys. This may be measured by the simple but elegant technique of... 

Measurement of the contact angle at a solid-liquid interface is a widely used method for the determination of the surface energy of solid polymers. Fowkes [1] first proposed that the surface energy of a pure phase, y y could be represented by the sum of the contribution from different types of force components, especially the dispersion and the polar components, such that ... 

The following Section II.2. is devoted to the attempts on calculating 7 from fundamental atomic and molecular constants. In Section II.3., semi-empirical expressions for the surface energy of solids are briefly reviewed. 

A, Mean free path of ions, meters Am Mean free path of electrons, ions, or molecules, meters a Surface tension of liquid or surface energy of solid, N/meter or J/ meter2... 

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