Technology: Optical Tensiometry

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Tech Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Leveraging Contact Angle Measurements to Predict Polymer Blending

Plastics made from polymeric materials are an integral part of many consumer goods and products. Whether it is the packaging or the product itself, different polymers can provide material and mechanical properties to suit the product’s functional needs. With the increased integration of environmentally sustainable…

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Surface Free Energy for Monitoring Surface Cleanliness

Surface Free Energy (SFE) of a solid surface is analogous to the surface tension of a liquid. Just as the surface tension of a liquid is a result of the force imbalance that occurs due to the termination of cohesive forces above a liquid with…

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Contact Angle Measurement for Monitoring Surface Cleanliness

Surface contamination is a concern for a wide variety of industries and their production processes such as polishing, surface treatments, coatings, bonding, and etching. Contamination can arise from a variety of sources, such as process oils and lubricants, aerosolized particles, residues from handling, or chemical…

Measuring the advancing and receding contact angle on a tilted surface

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Superhydrophobicity, Oleophobicity, and Contact Angle

Introduction Superhydrophobic and oleophobic surfaces are receiving increased attention because of their potential to provide breakthroughs in applications such as anti-fouling, self-cleaning, and anti-freezing. Contact angle measurements are often used to characterize the properties of these surfaces. However, the low wettability of these surfaces presents…

Contact angles demonstrating hydrophobic and hydrophilic surfaces

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Cleanliness and quality control testing by contact angle – how clean is my surface?

Contamination can have a wide variety of undesirable effects in manufacturing processes such as polishing, surface treatment, coating application, and etching. Some sources include finger oils from handling, atmospheric dust and dirt, and process lubricants. While best practices such as personal protective equipment use and…

Powder surface as seen in an optical tensiometer

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Measuring the contact angle, surface free energy and wettability of powders

For powdered materials such as pharmaceuticals, dyes, proppants, and foods, wettability is an important parameter to characterize. As the powders are immersed into a liquid, fluid may wick into the interstitial spaces between powder particles through capillary forces. The wettability of the powder can be…

Image of tilting contact angle

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Optical Tensiometry as a Tool to Measure Coating Properties and Substrate Adhesion

How can Optical Tensiometry Characterize Coatings? Coatings are used to modify the properties of the substrate that they cover and are ubiquitous in our everyday lives. They can have functional, protective, and/or aesthetic purposes. One everyday example of a coating is the touchscreen on a…

Spontaneous surfactant migration in an air-liquid system and oil-water system

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Dilatational Rheology of Foams, Emulsions, and Suspensions

The Attension Theta Flex and the Pulsating Drop Module PD-200 Emulsions and foams play a key role in important products such as foods1, pharmaceuticals2, and oil recovery formulations3. The stability of these products plays a key role in their performance and shelf life. Amphiphilic molecules…

Optical image of pendant drop of a sample

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

How Interfacial Rheology Can Replace Inefficient Emulsion Characterization in Droplet-Based Microfluidics

Emulsion Stability in Droplet-Based Microfluidics There are a lack of tools to efficiently predict emulsion stability. Stabilizing emulsions is a significant problem in foods [1], personal care products [2], pharmaceuticals [2], and droplet-based microfluidics. Some major applications of droplet-based microfluidics include single-cell gene sequencing [3],…

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Why Your Surgical Mask Orientation Matters: How We Use Wettability to our Advantage

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, surgical masks and N95 respirators (Fig. 1) have gained significant media attention, both for their use as personal protective equipment (PPE) and their limited supply. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend that the public wear…

Schematic of a fringe-projection phase shifting measurement

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Simultaneous Characterization of Topography and Contact Angle

Improved control and design of dental and orthopedic bone implants through simultaneous characterization of topography and contact angle To ensure the safety and quality of medical implants, parameters such as the roughness, cleanliness, and wettability of the surface must be characterized. Because these properties are…

Oil and gas enhanced oil gas EOR

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Enhancing EOR with High-Pressure Contact Angle Measurements

Improving Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) with the Attension Theta Flex High Pressure Chamber Measurements As oil demand continues to rise, many oil reservoirs are no longer capable of producing oil by traditional primary and secondary extraction methods. To extract these oils, enhanced oil recovery (EOR)…

Plasma Treated protocol sessle drop analysis

App Note | Technology: Optical Tensiometry

Quantifying Enhanced Wettability and Time-dependency of Plasma-treated Polypropylene

Wettability and Adhesion Problems for Polypropylene (PP) Products When applying coatings, inks, adhesives, and other materials to a surface, controlling the surface properties becomes critical. In particular, the wettability – the ability of the process liquid to spread and adhere to the solid surface –…

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