Surface tension

Surface tension, or surface energy, is a property of the surface of a liquid. It is usually measured in force per unit length (N/m) or energy per unit area (J/m²).

Surface tension is defined to be the force acting on a wire of unit length. The force is perpendicular to the wire, and parallel to the surface.

Measurement techniques

Surface tension is measured with tensiometers and several techniques are described in the literature. The most common methods are:

• Maximum pull on a rod (DuNouy-Padday) - the method of choice
• Wilhelmy plate
• DuNouy ring
• Pendant drop
• Spinning drop
• Bubble pressure

Publications

We have created a list of assorted publications that each utilized a Kibron instrument for its experimentation.

Click here to see the full list or select an instrument from the list below:

• Delta-8
• AquaPi / EZ-PiPlus
• DeltaPi / DeltaPi-4
• MicroTroughXS / MicroTroughXL