Difference between revisions of "Surface tension"

Revision as of 17:35, 1 October 2012

Definition

Surface tension is a property of liquid surfaces caused by cohesion. Cohesion is the physical property resulting from the intermolecular forces attracting like-molecules. The molecules on the surface of a liquid have a greater attraction to like-molecules around them than to unlike-molecules.

Molecules on the surface of a liquid experience an inward force balanced by the resistance to compression. Another important point in understanding surface tension is the liquid molecules seek the lowest possible surface area. This is the reason that liquids form droplets on hydrophobic surfaces. The interface of lke-molecules has a lower energy than the interface of unlike-molecules, therefore surface molecules seek to have as many like-molecule interfaces as possible resulting in the lowest surface area.

Units

Surface tension (<math>\gamma</math>) has dimensions of force per unit length, <math>\frac{F} {L}</math>.

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohesion_%28chemistry%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_tension

Keyword in references:

Capillary rise between elastic sheets

Contact angle associated with thin liquid films in emulsions

Controlled Assembly of Jammed Colloidal Shells on Fluid Droplets

Controlling the Fiber Diameter during electrospinning

Krafft Points, Critical Micelle Concentrations, Surface Tension, and Solubilizing Power of Aqueous Solutions of Fluorinated Surfactants

Surface-Tension-Induced Synthesis of Complex Particles Using Confined Polymeric Fluids

The Deformation of an Elastic Substrate by a Three-Phase Contact Line E. R. Jerison

Thermodynamic deviations of the mechanical equilibrium conditions for fluid surfaces: Young's and Laplace's equations

Substrate Curvature Resulting from the Capillary Forces of a Liquid Drop

Steering nanofibers: An integrative approach to bio-inspired fiber fabrication and assembly

Liquid-infused structured surfaces with exceptional anti-biofouling performance

Liquid-Infused Nanostructured Surfaces with Extreme Anti-Ice and Anti-Frost Performance

Wetting in Color: Colorimetric Differentiation of Organic Liquids with High Selectivity

Bifurcation of liquid drops

Acoustic Energy Storage in Single Bubble Sonoluminescence

Why air bubbles in water glow so easily

Analysis of Rayleigh–Plesset dynamics for sonoluminescing bubbles

Electrospinning: A whipping fluid jet generates submicron polymer fibers

Collapsing bacterial cylinders

Elastic Instability in Growing Yeast Colonies

Electric-field-induced capillary attraction between like-charged particles at liquid interfaces

Dynamics of foam drainage

Breakdown of scaling in droplet fission at high Reynolds number

Phase diagrams for sonoluminescing bubbles

On the bursting of viscous films

Linear stability and transient growth in driven contact lines

Mechanisms for Stable Single Bubble Sonoluminescence

Pinching threads, singularities and the number 0.0304 . . .

Single-bubble sonoluminescence

Thermal bending of liquid sheets and jets

Self-Assembly of Spherical Particles on an Evaporating Sessile Droplet

Electrospinning and electrically forced jets. I. Stability theory