Surface tension Wilhelmy slide method

The film pressure is defined as the difference between the surface tension of the pure fluid and that of the film-covered surface. While any method of surface tension measurement can be used, most of the methods of capillarity are, for one reason or another, ill-suited for work with film-covered surfaces with the principal exceptions of the Wilhelmy slide method (Section II-6) and the pendant drop experiment (Section II-7). Both approaches work very well with fluid films and are capable of measuring low values of pressure with similar precision of 0.01 dyn/cm. In addition, the film balance, considerably updated since Langmuir s design (see Section III-7) is a popular approach to measurement of V. 

This is one of the many detachment methods of which the drop weight and the Wilhelmy slide methods are also examples. As with all detachment methods, one supposes that, within an accuracy of a few percent, the detachment force is given by the surface tension multiplied by the periphery of the surface (liquid surface) detached (from a solid surface of a tubing or ring or plate). This assumption is also found to be acceptable for most experimental purposes. Thus, for a ring, as illustrated in Figure 2.12,... 

Measuring the force (the weight) needed to break away a body from the liquid surface is the basis for many variations of the detachment method. The body may be in the form of a rod with a circular base (Pin detachment method), a rod with a rectangular base (Wilhelmy slide method), a horizontal circular ring (Ring method), etc. The different forms of the detachment method have been used for surface tension measurement of liquids from room temperature up to approximately 1000°C. It is evident that the detachment methods can be used only in cases when the liquid wets the measuring body. 

Wilhelmy Plate Method A method for determining surface or interfadal tension on the basis of measuring the force needed to pull an inert plate, held vertically, through an interface. Also termed the Wilhelmy slide method. See also du Nouy Ring Method. 

The Wilhelmy slide method is somewhat similar to the ring-pull method. A very thin plate, such as a microscope cover glass or a sheet of mica, is hung from one arm of a balance and allowed to dip in the solution (Fig. 18.3). If p is the perimeter of the slide, the downward pull on the slide due to surface tension is yp. If F and F are the forces acting downward when the slide is touching the surface and when it is suspended freely in air respectively, then... 

The Wilhelmy plate method provides an extremely simple approach that, unlike the ring detachment method, permits the measurement of continuously varying or dynamic surface tensions. If a thin plate (e.g., a microscope slide, a strip of platinum foil, or even a slip of filter paper) is attached to a microbalance and suspended so that its lower edge is just immersed in a liquid, the measured apparent weight Wj, is related to the actual weight of the plate Wp and the surface tension y by the following simple equation ... 

The Wilhelmy plate method, as shown in Figure 4.10, is similar to du Nouy s ring method, but it uses a thin mica plate or microscope slide. The plate is suspended from a balance and dips into the liquid. The force, F, required to detach the liquid meniscus surrounding the plate depends on the surface tension or interfacial tension by ... 

Ring method — Method to determine the - interfacial tension in liquid-gas systems introduced by Lecomte du Noiiy [i]. It is based on measuring the force to detach a ring or loop of a wire from the surface of a liquid. The method is similar to the -> Wilhelmyplate method when used in the detachment mode [ii]. See also -> electrocapillarity, -r electrocapillary curve, -> Gibbs-Lippmann equation, - Wilhelmy plate (slide) method, - drop weight method, - Lippmann capillary electrometer. 

---