0 THE EVALUATION OF WETTING AGENTS

A Student Experiment

I.A. MUNRO
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Tm official method of the American Association of

Textile Chemists & Colorists for the comparison of
wetting agents consists in finding the concentration of
wetting agent required to cause the sinking of a 5-g.
skein of standard two-ply cotton yarn in a standard
time. The skein, carrying a hook of standard weight
(3 g.), is held beneath the surface of the wetting solution
by a 20-mm. thread attached to a heavier weight (40 g.)
caUed the anchor. The concentration to cause sinking
in a standard time of 25 seconds is obtained from a curve
plotted from average sinking time for a range of con-
centrations. It is called the Draves index.', %
The following experiment based on the Draves
method has been found to give surprisingly good results
in the colloid laboratory. Students have consistently 0.11'"' " " t i """' ' '
3 5 10 20 304050 100 200 500
obtained the same order of wetting for a series of com- Sinking time in seconds
mercial detergents and surface-active compounds as
was previously obtained using the official method.
The experiment described below em-
Bend the ei!d of a pipe cleaner so as to make a hook
FJ ploys undyed pipe cleaners, which cost
li+,+,ln.
-- ~--
~

The sinker consists of a 1.5-cm. piece

of heavy capillary tubing through which
is a triangular loop of Constantan or other
wire. To the wire is attached a loop of
linen thread 15 mm. long. The cylinders
used are the tallest 100-ml. ones selected
from stock. These give ample coverage
of the immersed pipe cleaner.
The experiment requires much lower
concentrations and much smaller volumes
of wetting agent than the official test.
Figurn I
Stock solutions containing 2 1 can
therefore be used conveniently.
PROCEDURE
Prepare 250 ml. of standard solutions of the assigned
detergents or wetting agents, either by dilution of stock
solution or by direct weighing, to contain 1.00 g./l.
Pour gently 100 ml. of prepared solution into a grad-
uated cylinder and allow to stand until all bubbles
have come to the surface. Record the temperature of
the solution.
'"Year Book of the American Association of Textile Chem-
ists and Colorists," 1942, p. 248.
DIUVER. C . Z..' AND R. G. CLILRKMN. Am. Duestuff Revtr..
23, 1938 (1934).
Yomo, C. B. F., AND K. N. COONS, "Surface Active Agents,"
Chemical Publishing Co., Inc., Brooklyn, New York, 1945, p. 85.
as shown in Figure 1. Pass the bend through the
thread loop attached to the sinker. The pipe cleaner
is then held by the tip with the anchor and thread
immersed. Start the stop watch the instant the pipe
cleaner is immersed. The pipe cleaner will now be
floating vertically with the thread taut and bubbles of
air escaping from the tip. Stop the watch the instant
the pipe cleaner hits the sinker. The latter time is
indicated instead of the first slackening of the thread in
the Draves test, becauseit has been found that withlow
concentrations (i. e., long wetting time) the escape of
the second-last bubble causes a downward push by the
displacing solution, and the buoyancy is such that the
pipe cleaner neither sinks nor rises but the anchor line
is slack. Handle the pipe cleaners as little as possible.
Determine sinking times in triplicate or until con-
sistent values are obtained. Discard any determina-
tions giving values under two seconds and proceed to
next dilution. Repeat, using concentrations of 0.75,
0.60,0.45,0.15,0.10 g./l. or other appropriate dilutions
to give a range of times between approximately 2 and
300 seconds. Solutions for successive tests may be
prepared by pouring off the required amount from the
preceding test and diluting: 75 ml. of No. 1made up to
100 gives No. 2; 80 ml.of No. 2 gives No. 3, etc.
Solutions containing 0.30 g./l. or less should be pre-
pared by proper dilution of the stock solution. Place
the used pipe cleaners on a cleanlaboratory towel. Plot
on log-log paper average sinking time versus concentra-
tion. Repeat the test for any concentration which is Figure 2 shows typical student results for two
obviously in error. Determine the concentration differentdetergents.
corresponding to 25 seconds sinking time for each of the The pipe cleaners when dry are used again by the class
assigned detergents. in semimicro qualitative analysis.