JCE Online Journal of Chemical Education
 | Subscriptions  | Software Orders  | Support  | Contributors  | Advertisers  | 

JCE Print

JCE Digital Library

JCE Software

Only@JCE Online

About JCE


  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2002  > March  >
In the Laboratory
Quantifying Meniscus Forces with an Electronic Balance: Direct Measurement of Liquid Surface Tension. A Physical Chemistry Experiment
Rafael M. Digilov
Department of Education in Technology and Science, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel

Cover
March 2002
Vol. 79 No. 3
p. 353

Abstract
The phenomenon of capillary adhesion, in which a drop of liquid placed between two solid surfaces attracts them together, is considered at an elementary level. It is shown that for a small amount of liquid, independent of the solids-contact geometry, the adhesion force is defined mainly by the Laplace pressure force FL, for which a generalized equation is derived under arbitrary contact geometry. A simple physical chemistry laboratory experiment for measuring FL between a glass sphere and a glass plate with an ordinary electronic balance is described. The relationship between FL and liquid surface tension g is used to obtain g. The validity and acceptability of this method for undergraduate physical chemistry laboratories is experimentally confirmed for various liquid samples.
Supplement
Instructions and laboratory notes for students are available.
*  Contents JCE2002p0353W.doc (Microsoft Word)
*  Download
JCE2002p0353W.pdf

JCE2002p0353W.zip

JCE2002p0353W.sit

More Information
*  Citation
Digilov, Rafael M. J. Chem. Educ. 2002 79 353.
*  Keywords
Laboratory Instruction; Liquids; Physical Chemistry; Surface Science
*  History
Created:
Last Updated:
January 31, 2002
March 16, 2005
  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2002  > March  > Page 353


Subscriptions

JCE HS CLIC

Our Secondary School editors work hard to distill all the JCE materials to produce a fraction of particular interest to high school teachers. We call it CLIC.


Contributions Welcome
JCE welcomes your submission

Advertisers
In recent years we have worked hard to better match our advertisers with our readers. When shopping for chemistry education materials, visit our advertisers' WWW sites first.

Be An Ambassador
Take JCE along on your outreach missions. Copies of the Journal, guest access to JCE Online, our publications catalog, and more are available for your participants.