Student's

Sheet
Printed: 28.11.2017 14:19:16 | P2140500

Surface tension with the ring method (Du Nouy

method) (Item No.: P2140500)
Curricular Relevance

Experiment:
Subtopic:
Area of Expertise: Education Level: Topic: Surface tension with
Mechanics of Fluids
Physics University Mechanics the ring method (Du
and Gases
Nouy method)

Difficulty Preparation Time Execution Time Recommended Group Size

Intermediate 1 Hour 1 Hour 2 Students

Additional Requirements: Experiment Variations:

Keywords:

Surface energy, adhesion, surface tension, critical point, Eotvos equation

Overview

Short description
Principle

To determine the surface tension of a liquid, a ring that is attached to a torsion meter by means of a silk thread is dipped into the
liquid. The liquid level is lowered and the force that acts on the ring just before the liquid film tears is measured. The surface
tension can be calculated from the diameter of the ring and the tear-off force.

Fig. 1: Experimental set-up

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Equipment

Position Material Bestellnr. Menge

1 Magnetic stirrer with heater MRHei-Tec 35752-93 1
2 Torsion dynamometer, 0.01 N 02416-00 1
3 Surface tension measuring ring 17547-00 1
4 Retort stand, 210mm × 130mm, 750mm 37694-00 1
5 Supp.rod stainl.st.,50cm,M10-thr. 02022-20 1
6 Magnetic stirring bar 30 mm, cylindrical 46299-02 1
7 Universal clamp 37715-00 2
8 Right angle boss-head clamp 37697-00 2
9 Right angle clamp expert 02054-00 1
10 Crystallizing dish, boro3.3, 900ml 46245-00 2
11 Cristallizing dish,boro3.3, 500ml 46244-00 2
12 Silk thread, l = 200 m 02412-00 1
13 Glass tubes,straight, 150 mm, 10 36701-64 1
14 Stopcock,1-way,straight, glass 36705-00 1
15 Silicone tubing i.d. 7mm, 1 m 39296-00 2
16 Volumetric pipette, 10 ml 36578-00 1
17 Volumetric pipette, 20 ml 36579-00 1
18 Pipettor 36592-00 1
19 Pipette dish 36589-00 1
20 Graduated cylinder 100 ml 36629-00 1
21 Ethyl alcohol, absolute 500 ml 30008-50 1
22 Olive oil,pure 100 ml 30177-10 5
23 Water, distilled 5 l 31246-81 1

Tasks
1. Determine the surface tension of olive oil as a function of temperature.
2. Determine the surface tension of water/ethanol mixtures as a function of the mixing ratio.

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Setup and procedure

Set up the experiment as shown in Fig. 1.

Degrease the measuring ring with alcohol, rinse it with distilled water and dry it. Use a silk thread to attach the ring to the left
arm of the torsion dynamometer. Set the indicator to '0' and compensate the weight of the ring with the rear adjusting knob so
that the lever arm is in the white area between the marks.

Task 1:

Pour the liquid to be investigated into a 1000 ml crystallizing dish and also fill the immersion tube and the rubber hose by
briefly applying suction with the pipettor. The ring must be completely submerged.
Switch on the magnetic stirrer and adjust the electronic temperature control to the required measurement temperature.
When the temperature has stabilized switch off the stirrer and allow the liquid to come to rest. Then open the stopcock
that is connected to the immersion tube via the rubber hose and let the liquid slowly run out of the 1000 ml crystallizing
dish into the smaller one.
Continuously readjust the torsion dynamometer while the liquid runs out to keep the lever arm in the white area between
the two marks.
Stop the measurement at the moment when the liquid film tears from the ring, and read off the last value set on the
torsion dynamometer.
Pour the liquid collected in the small crystalizing dish back into the dish on the magnetic stirrer and repeat the above
procedure at intervals of 5 °C over a temperature range of 20 °C to 130 °C.

Task 2:

To determine the surface tension of various ethanol-water repeat the above procedure without heating and use the following
mixing ratios:

Ethanol / ml Water / ml Ethanol / %

90 - 100
90 10 90
90 20 81.8
90 50 64.3
90 70 56.3
90 90 50

Carry out an additional series of experiments as above but starting with pure water:

Water / ml Ethanol / ml Ethanol / %

90 - 0
90 10 10
90 20 18.2
90 50 35.7
90 70 43.7
90 90 50

Theory and evaluation

A molecule in a liquid is subject to forces exerted by all molecules surrounding it; the resulting force is zero. The resulting force
acting on a molecule in a boundary layer of a liquid surface is not zero but is directed towards the interior of the liquid. This force
is called cohesion. It holds the liquid together.

Every liquid endeavours to reduce its surface area, so that the surface energy is as low as possible. When no other forces are
active, therefore, every liquid adopts a spherical shape, as this is the shape with the smallest surface area for a given volume. In
order to enlarge the surface of a liquid by an area , a certain amount of work must be performed.

(1)

is the specific surface energy. It is identical with the surface tension

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(2)

where force acts along the edge of length , tangential to the surface in order to maintain the liquid film. When a ring of
radius is used, the length of the edge is

(3)

In order to be able to compare surface tensions, they are related to a surface that holds 1 mole of molecules. 1 mole occupies a
volume and consists of molecules, each of which occupies a space of . Considering this space to be cubic in
shape, then the length of each side is and the area of each side . There is so always the same
number of molecules in the space . The surface tension is therefore related to this surface, and this quantity is
called the molar surface tension .

(4)

When a liquid is heated, the kinetic energy of the molecules increases. This results in a weakening of the forces of cohesion. The
surface tension decreases linearly and, with all liquids, reaches the value 0 at the critical temperature .

(5)

where is a temperature near the critical temperature and is the temperature coefficient. is equal for almost all
liquids (Eotvos’ equation):

(6)

Deviations indicate association or the formation of double molecules. In the calculation of the temperature coefficient, it was
assumed that the same number of molecules is contained in the area . With substances that associate, this number
is smaller, so that the temparature coefficient must also be smaller. When two liquids are mixed, that liquid with the lower
surface tension becomes enriched in the surface area. The surface tension of a solution of concentration is defined
according to Szyskowski by

where and are constants depending on the substance. The surface tension of such mixtures has a non-linear relationship to
the mixing ratio.

Data and results

The diameter of the measuring ring employed in this example is from equation 3, is obtained:

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Task 1:

The measurement results obtained for olive oil show an inverse linear relationship to temperature (Fig. 2). The surface tension of
olive oil calculated from equations (2) and (3) is in this sample result:

Fig. 2: Temperature dependency of surface tension of olive oil.

Task 2:

The non-linear relationship between surface tension and mixing ratio in the case of water/ethanol mixtures is shown in Fig. 3.
Literature values for the surface tension of ethanol and water at (25 °C):

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Fig. 3: Surface tension of water/ethanol mixtures as function of ethanol concentration.

Experimental values (calculated from (2) and (3)):

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