Surface tension static methods

Surface tension methods measure either static or dynamic surface tension. Static methods measure surface tension at equilibrium, if sufficient time is allowed for the measurement, and characterize the system. Dynamic surface tension methods provide information on adsorption kinetics of surfactants at the air-liquid interface or at a liquid-liquid interface. Dynamic surface tension can be measured in a timescale ranging from a few milliseconds to several minutes [315]. However, a demarkation line between static and dynamic methods is not very sharp because surfactant adsorption kinetics can also affect the results obtained by static methods. It has been argued [316] that in many industrial processes, sufficient time is not available for the surfactant molecules to attain equilibrium. In such situations, dynamic surface tension, dependent on the rate of interface formation, is more meaningful than the equilibrium surface tension. For example, peaked alcohol ethoxylates, because they are more water soluble, do not lower surface tension under static conditions as much as the conventional alcohol ethoxylates. Under dynamic conditions, however, peaked ethoxylates are equally or more effective than conventional ethoxylates in lowering surface tension [317]. 

The detachment of a ring or a plate (a Wilhelmy plate) from the surface of a liquid or solution is a static surface tension measurement method, which gives the detachment force of a film of the liquid and its extension from the liquid surface. These methods are less accurate than the capillary rise method, but they are normally employed in most surface laboratories because of their ease and rapidity. 

Table 2.1 Static Surface Tension Measurement Methods for Liquids...

Recently, the size and shape of a liquid droplet at the molten tip of an arc electrode have been studied,12151 and an iterative method for the shape of static drops has been proposed. 216 Shapes, stabilities and oscillations of pendant droplets in an electric field have also been addressed in some investigations. 217 218 The pendant drop process has found applications in determining surface tensions of molten substances. 152 However, the liquid dripping process is not an effective means for those practical applications that necessitate high liquid flow rates and fine droplets (typically 1-300 pm). For such fine droplets, gravitational forces become negligible in the droplet formation mechanism. 

As we shall have occasion to note in dealing with solutions, the composition of the surface phase is very different from that of the bulk liquid. When a liquid interface is newly formed the system is unstable until the surface phase has acquired its correct excess or deficit of solute by diffusion from or into the bulk of the solution. This process of diffusion is by no means instantaneous and, as has been observed in discussing the drop weight method, several minutes may elapse before equilibrium is established. In the ripple method the surfece is not renewed instantaneously but may be regarded as undergoing a series of expansions and contractions, thus we should anticipate that the value of the surface tension of a solution determined by this method would lie between those determined by the static and an ideal dynamic method respectively. 

The profiles of pendant and sessile bubbles and drops are commonly used in determinations of surface and interfacial tensions and of contact angles. Such methods are possible because the interfaces of static fluid particles must be at equilibrium with respect to hydrostatic pressure gradients and increments in normal stress due to surface tension at a curved interface (see Chapter 1). It is simple to show that at any point on the surface... 

What are some of the dynamic methods for measuring surface tension What are the differences between these and the static methods ... 

The choice between the static methods (Wilhelmy plate method and the du Noiiy ring method) should primarily be based on the properties of the system being studied, in particular, the surfactant. As mentioned in UNITD3.5, the transport of surfactant molecules from the bulk to the surface requires a finite amount of time. Since static interfacial tension measurements do not yield information about the true age of the interface, it is conceivable that the measured interfacial tension values may not correspond to equilibrium interfacial tension values (i.e., the exchange of molecules between the bulk and the interface has not yet reached full equilibrium and the interfacial tension values are therefore not static). If the surfactant used in the experiment adsorbs within a few seconds, which is the case for small-molecule surfactants, then both the Wilhelmy plate method and the du Noiiy ring method are adequate. If the adsorption of a surfactant requires more time to reach full equilibrium, then the measurement should not be conducted until the interfacial tension values have stabilized. Since interfacial tension values are continuously displayed with... 

Provides measuring techniques of contact angle, surface tension, interfacial tension, and bubble pressure. Suitable methods for both static and dynamic inteifacial tension of liquids include du Nous ring, Wilhelmy plate, spinning drop, pendant drop, bubble pressure, and drop volume techniques. Methods for solids include sessile drop, dynamic Wilhelmy, single fiber, and powder contact angle techniques. 

Viscosity and density of the component phases can be measured with confidence by conventional methods, as can the interfacial tension between a pure liquid and a gas. The interfacial tension of a system involving a solution or micellar dispersion becomes less satisfactory, because the interfacial free energy depends on the concentration of solute at the interface. Dynamic methods and even some of the so-called static methods involve the creation of new surfaces. Since the establishment of equilibrium between this surface and the solute in the body of the solution requires a finite amount of time, the value measured will be in error if the measurement is made more rapidly than the solute can diffuse to the fresh surface. Eckenfelder and Barnhart (Am. Inst. Chem. Engrs., 42d national meeting, Repr. 30, Atlanta, 1960) found that measurements of the surface tension of sodium lauryl sulfate solutions by maximum bubble pressure were higher than those by DuNuoy tensiometer by 40 to 90 percent, the larger factor corresponding to a concentration of about 100 ppm, and the smaller to a concentration of 2500 ppm of sulfate. 

The many methods available for the measurement of surface and interfacial tensions can be classified as static, detachment and dynamic, the last of these being used to study relatively short time effects. Static methods usually offer a greater potential for accurate measurement than detachment methods (especially when solutions of surface-active agents are involved)43, but detachment methods tend to be the more convenient to operate. With careful experimentation and exclusion of contaminants (especially surfactants), it is usually possible to measure surface tensions to an accuracy of 0.01 to 0.1 mN m-1. It is unwise to use water which has been in contact with ion-exchange resins. 

The plate method can also be used as a static method (Figure 4.5b) for measuring changes in surface tension (see page 99). The change in the force required to maintain the plate at constant immersion as the surface tension alters is measured. 

A number of methods are available for the measurement of surface and interfacial tension of liquid systems. Surface tension of liquids is determined by static and dynamic surface tension methods. Static surface tension characterises the surface tension of the liquid in equilibrium and the commonly used measurement methods are Du Notiy ring, Wilhelmy plate, spinning drop and pendant drop. Dynamic surface tension determines the surface tension as a function of time and the bubble pressure method is the most common method used for its determination. 

There are static and dynamic methods. The static methods measure the tension of practically stationary surfaces which have been formed for an appreciable time, and depend on one of two principles. The most accurate depend on the pressure difference set up on the two sides of a curved surface possessing surface tension (Chap. I, 10), and are often only devices for the determination of hydrostatic pressure at a prescribed curvature of the liquid these include the capillary height method, with its numerous variants, the maximum bubble pressure method, the drop-weight method, and the method of sessile drops. The second principle, less accurate, but very often convenient because of its rapidity, is the formation of a film of the liquid and its extension by means of a support caused to adhere to the liquid temporarily methods in this class include the detachment of a ring or plate from the surface of any liquid, and the measurement of the tension of soap solutions by extending a film. 

The dynamic methods depend on the fact that certain vibrations of a liquid cause periodic extensions and contractions of its surface, which are resisted or assisted by the surface tension. Surface tension therefore forms an important part, or the whole, of the restoring force which is concerned in these vibrations, and may be calculated from observations of their periodicity. Dynamic methods include determination of the wave-length of ripples, of the oscillations of jets issuing from non-circular orifices, and of the oscillations of hanging drops. Dynamic methods may measure a different quantity from the static methods, in the case of solutions, as the surface is constantly being renewed in some of these methods, and may not be old enough for adsorption to have reached equilibrium. In the formation of ripples there is so little interchange of material between the surface and interior, and so little renewal of the surface, that the surface tension measured is the static tension ( 12. ... 

The various dynamic methods give the surface tension of more or less recently formed surfaces, and may yield results different from the static methods, if adsorption occurs, and is incomplete at the moment when the tension is actually measured. One factor in dynamic measurements, which cannot be satisfactorily measured at present, is the time which has elapsed between the formation of the surface from the homogeneous interior liquid, and the actual measurement of the surface tension. If this could be varied, and measured with an accuracy of say 10 4 second, a valuable new weapon would be available for investigating the progress of adsorption. Bohr s work on oscillating jets is probably the best on any dynamic method. 

A difficulty encountered in the measurement of the surface tension of solutions is that it is often different when measured by so-called dynamic methods (vibrating jets, etc.), in which the value for a freshly-formed surface is measured rapidly, and when measured by so-called static methods (capillary rise, etc.), which determine the value for a surface which has been in existence for some time. The difference is due to the fact that the composition of the surface is different from that in the bulk of the solution, and in a fresh surface a change of concentration occurs, which, as it involyes diffusion, usually occurs slowly, so that rapid measurements give results different from those which deal with a surface which has come into equilibrium. In capillary active solutions, the surface is enriched in solute, whilst in capillary inactive it is usually richer in solvent. In the case of electrolyte solutions, the surface layer is considered to consist of a unimolecular layer of solvent molecules. The thermodynamic theory was established by Gibbs, and indicates that when the solute... 

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