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The Measurement of the Surface Energy of Solids by Sessile Drop Accelerometry

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Abstract

A new physical method, the sessile drop accelerometry (SDACC) for the study and measurement of the interfacial energies of solid-liquid-gas systems, is tested and discussed in this study. The laboratory instrument and technique—a combination of a drop shape analyzer with high-speed camera and a laboratory drop tower- and the evaluation algorithms, were designed to calculate the interfacial energies as a function of the geometrical changes of a sessile droplet shape due to the effect of “switching off” gravity during the experiment. The method bases on Thermodynamics of Interfaces and differs from the conventional approach of the two hundred-years-old Young’s equation in that it assumes a thermodynamic equilibrium between interfaces, rather than a balance of tensions on a point of the solid-liquid-gas contour line. A comparison of the mathematical model that supports the method with the widely accepted Young‘s equation is discussed in detail in this study. The method opens new possibilities to develop surface characterization procedures by submitting the solid-liquid-system to artificial generated and uniform force fields.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Predevelopment, Division Dish Care, BSH Hausgeräte GmbH (a subsidiary of Robert Bosch GmbH), Robert-Bosch-Straße 16, 89407, Dillingen an der Donau, Germany

    Alfredo Calvimontes

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  1. Alfredo Calvimontes
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Correspondence to Alfredo Calvimontes.

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This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Interdisciplinary Science Challenges for Gravity Dependent Phenomena in Physical and Biological Systems

Guest Editors: Jens Hauslage, Ruth Hemmersbach, Valentina Shevtsova

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Calvimontes, A. The Measurement of the Surface Energy of Solids by Sessile Drop Accelerometry. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 30, 277–293 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-018-9596-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-018-9596-7

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