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Summary: Surfactants are everywhere in nature and everyday life: animals rely on lung surfactants to breathe, and
mayonnaise would separate into oil and water without them. To develope advanced multiphase polymeric
materials, the efficacy of synthetic surfactants must be determined and optimized. To do so, one must
measure their surface pressure without the `macroscopic' quantities required for standard tensiometry. To
address this challenge, the Israelachvili, Leal and Squires groups have developed a micro-tensiometer
using microfabrication techniques. By exploiting elastic beam theory, along with known geometric and
material parameters excellent agreement with traditional techniques is observed. This new and general
technique significantly expands the range of interfacial measurements and greatly reduces sample size,
which allows for the more efficient design, control, and study of advanced, high-interface materials.
Microfabricated micro-tensiometers: length
L~1mm, width~20 mm and height ~20 mm.
Microfabricated micro-tensiometers: length
L~1mm, width~20 mm and height ~20 mm.
Micro-tensiometry
NSF-DMR05-20415
Comparison of experimental surface
pressures for micro-tensiometer vs.
traditional technique
Comparison of experimental surface
pressures for micro-tensiometer vs.
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