05/01/2024

Surface Phenomena
Surface Tension, Capillarity and its
Application

Chapter Objectives
• Explain the surface tension and capillarity
phenomena

• Effects of temperature and concentration

on surface tension

• Describe measurement methods related to

both phenomena 2

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What is surface tension?

❖ A measurement of the cohesive energy present at
an interface.

✓ The molecules of a liquid attract each other. The

interactions of a molecule in the bulk of a liquid
are balanced by an equal attractive force in all
directions.
✓ Molecules on the surface of
a liquid experience an
imbalance of forces

✓ Surface tension is denoted

by  (gamma), unit: dyne/cm or N/m.

A molecule at the surface misses half its

interactions

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Surface Tension, 
an effect within the surface layer of a
liquid that causes that layer to behave as an
elastic sheet/
behaves like a rubber membrane under tension

Examples of Surface Tension

Walking on water: Water strider can walk on water
because their weight is not enough to penetrate the
surface.

Floating a paper clip: even though several times

as dense as water, a needle carefully placed on the
surface of water can float. If agitated to break up
the surface tension, then needle will quickly sink.

Soaps and detergents: Soap and detergents lower the

surface tension of water. This allows the water to
penetrate materials more easily.

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Washing with hot water: hot water's surface
tension is lower and it is a better “wetting agent”.

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Surface tension of some liquids

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Surface Tension and Surface

Energy
• Surface tension is not a force, but rather a force per unit
length.
• Surface tension can be also measure in terms of energy per
area.
• Energy in ISI unit (Joule) is equivalent to N.m
• Term of ‘Surface energy’ is usually used in determining surface
tension of material in solid phase

𝑑𝑦𝑛𝑒 𝑁 𝑁. 𝑚 𝐽
1 =1 =1 =1
𝑚 𝑚 𝑚2 𝑚2

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Example
• The surface tension at 20 °C for several alcohols is
γ (CH3O) = 22.61 dyne·cm-1, and γ (C2H5OH) = 2.275 X 10-2 N.m-1
and γ (n-C3H7OH) = 23.78 mJ.m-2
Which of these alcohols has the greatest surface tension ?

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Definition of Interface
• INTERFACE is the boundary between two or more phases (solid,
liquid or gas) exist together
• Interfacial tension: the force per unit length existing at the
interface between two phases (immiscible with each other)
• When one phase is gas, the term “surface tension” is more
commonly used.

Gas
Surface tension
Liq 1
Interface
Liq 2 Interfacial tension
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Types of interface

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Cohesive and Adhesive Forces

• The force which BOUND molecules together is known as
molecular force
• There are 2 types of molecular force:
• Cohesive force: Force of attraction/repulsion between the
molecules of the same substance is called as cohesive force.
• Adhesive force: Force of attraction between the molecules of
different substances is called as adhesive force.

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Liquid in a Vertical Tube

ls = liquid-solid surface tension

la = liquid-air surface tension
= contact angle
Concave

Concave Adhesive>>Cohesive
Convex Adhesive<<Cohesive

Convex
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Contact angle and wetting

• Place a drop of a liquid on a smooth surface of a solid.
According to the wettability, the drop will make a certain
angle of contact with the solid.
• A contact angle is wider than 90°, the solid is named non-
wettable.
• A contact angle is lower than 90°, the solid is called wettable
• A contact angle equal to zero indicates complete wettability.

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Contact angle and wetting

Examples of wetting phenomena in daily life?

- Drops on a glass
- Dispersing a powder in a milk
- Penetration of liquid into porous soil

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Contact angles for some interfaces

most organic liquids - glass 0° - 10°

mercury - copper 0°
pure water - glass 0°
water - glass 20°
kerosene - glass 26°
water - silver 90°
water - parafin 106°
mercury - glass 148°

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Surface Tension and Capillarity

The surface of a liquid at rest is not perfectly flat; it curves either
up or down at the walls of the container. This is the result of
surface tension, which makes the surface behave somewhat
elastically.

If a narrow tube is placed in a

fluid, the fluid will exhibit
capillarity.

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Capillarity
❖ capillary action
❖ Results of a combination of adhesion &
cohesive
❖ The ability of a liquid to flow in narrow spaces
without the assistance of, and in opposition to,
external forces like gravity
❖ Capillarity manifests in many ways in the
everyday world.
For examples:
• Paper towels absorb through capillarity.
• When burning a candle, the melted wax rises
up the wick due to capillarity.
• In biology, though blood is pumped throughout
the body, it is this process which distributes
blood in the smallest blood vessels which are
called, appropriately, capillaries.

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The capillary rise of water and the The forces acting on a liquid column
capillary fall of mercury in a small- that has risen in a tube due to the
diameter glass tube. capillary effect.

➢ Capillary rise is inversely proportional to the

radius of the tube and density of the liquid.
small radius (r) → large h
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A capillary tube with an inside diameter

of 250 μm can support a 100mm column
of liquid that has a density of 930 kg.m-3.
The observed contact angle is 15°. Find
the surface tension of the liquid.

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Mercury has an angle of contact equal to 140° with soda

lime glass. A narrow tube of radius 2 mm, made of this
glass is dipped in a trough containing mercury. By what
amount does the mercury dip down in the tube relative to
the liquid surface outside?. Surface tension of
mercury T=0.456 N m-1; Density of mercury ρ = 13.6 x
103 kg m-3
Capillary descent,

where, negative sign indicates that there is fall of mercury (mercury is

depressed) in glass tube.

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Surface tension measurement methods

1. Capillary rise
2. Wilhelmy plate
3. Du Nouy ring method
4. Drop-volume and drop-weight
5. Bubble Measure method

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Capillary rise method

• The force due to the surface tension is given by:

 The gravitational force is given by:

 At equilibrium:

 For most liquids, =0 and cos =1. Then

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• Example:
• A sample of chloroform rose to a height of 3.67
cm at 20°C in a capillary tube having an inside
radius of 0.01 cm. What is the surface tension of
chloroform at this temperature? The density of
chloroform is 1.476 g/cm3.

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 This is one of the most widely-used methods for measuring the

surface tension.
 The advantage of the ring method is that it is rapid, very simple and
does not need to be calibrated using solutions of known surface
tension. When applied to pure liquids with due precautions, the
error can be reduced to ± 0.25%
 The measurement is performed by an instrument known as
Tensiometer. This instrument has an accurate micro-balance and a
precise mechanism to vertically move the sample liquid in a glass
beaker. The modern tensiometer has a computer-controlled
arrangement that can move the table holding the liquid very slowly
(~100 m/s)
 The surface or interfacial tension can be given by

where, F: pull on the ring

ri: inner rad, ra: outer rad
R: mean radius of the ring

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• A correction factor is necessary because the simple theory does

not take into account certain variables such as the radius of the
ring, the radius of the wire used to form the ring, and the volume
of liquid raised out of the surface.

• Errors as large as 25% may occur if the correction factor is not

calculated and applied.

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 The ring of the tensiometer has a radius, R, of 0.8078 cm, and R3 = 0.527122
cm3. The radius, r, of the wire that forms the ring is 0.01877 cm. Calculate the
surface tension for water at 18°C. the mass M of liquid lifted with the ring (M =
0.7866 g) before it breaks away from the water surface. The gravity constant,
980.665 cm/sec2 ; The correction factor, β = 0.9471 (18°C).

= 71.97dynes/cm

Without the correction factor, β, γ is calculated here to be 75.99 dynes/cm. The

value of γ for water at 18°C is recorded in handbooks as approximately 73.05
dynes/cm. The error relative to the published value at 18°C is (73.05 - 71.97/73.05)
× 100 = 1.48%.

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Wilhelmy plate method

• This method is similar to the du Noüy ring

method. However, it is simpler and does not
require the correction.
• A thin plate (usually made of platinum and
iridium) is used.
• It is dipped into the liquid which surface
tension is to be measured.
• The vessel containing the liquid is gradually
lowered and the force measured by the
balance at the point of detachment F is noted.

: contact angle
L: wetted perimeter of the plate

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Drop volume and drop weight

method

Correction factor is required because on detachment

(a)The drop does not completely leave the tip

(b)The surface tension forces are seldom exactly vertical depends on
ratio r/V1/3 and have been determined empirically by Harkins and
Brown (Journal of American Society (1919)).

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 The maximum pressure required to force a bubble though a tube is

related to the surface tension of the liquid

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The maximum bubble pressure method

(MBPM) is an easy-to-use technique for
measuring the dynamic surface tension (DST)

In applications such as foaming, cleaning or

coating, the interfaces are formed very
quickly. For such applications, the dynamics
of rapid formation of interface is important,
which depends on the mobility of the
surfactant molecules.

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The choice of the method for measuring surface

and interfacial tension depend on:

• Whether surface or interfacial tension is to be determined.

• The accuracy desired
• The size of sample.

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