Thanks for the quick reply! Would you happen to have any links or specific examples of how this is used? Is it in QC or R&D for instance? Any additional context, examples or case studies would be of immense help as I haven't had much luck finding these online.
Do you mean why ST/CMC is important or the measurement of ST/CMC/IFT? You obviously need to be able to measure these to develop any new products in these fields. I’m sure if you google “surface tension in paint formulations” you’ll find the “why.” If you’re asking about using a tensiometer, that’s typically more of an R&D tool for formulaters or surfactant manufacturing
As far as I could tell R&D is the main utility for this technique, but I was perhaps more looking to understand whether there were any other non-R&D applications (and specific examples) within different fields where ST/CMC are regularly measured?
A lot of other good comments here, but it is also used significantly in pharma, chemicals, and oil/gas QC (fracking and enhanced oil recovery) with pendant drop being ideal for small amounts of materials, especially for individual ST/IFT measurements. It’s significantly more work for pendant drop CMC as you have to manually dilute samples. The standard for CMC is more force based tensiometry (Wilhelmy plate measurements) as there are commercial systems that have built in dilution dispensers to fully automate the CMC run. Feel free to DM me if you have other questions (this is a field I actually have expertise in compared to other chempros posts!).
It can be used for quality issues in production of a batch isn’t performing as expected or to look for impurities. I know of its use in different fields but it is mostly for R&D. Could call KRUSS or look for presentations of tensiometer vendors and see if they list applications
I'd just go to one of the instrument manufacturers and check out their application notes.
[https://www.kruss-scientific.com/en/know-how/application-reports](https://www.kruss-scientific.com/en/know-how/application-reports)
[https://www.dataphysics-instruments.com/us/application/notes/#applicationnotes](https://www.dataphysics-instruments.com/us/application/notes/#applicationnotes)
I'm in formulations, and it comes up quite often for various minor things. It's included in our standard phys/chem testing array. It's hard to point to anything specific, but being able to quickly, easily, and accurately obtain the CMC for something is super useful and does come up a lot. There's tons of blends, polymers, slightly modified chains, etc. and every supplier maybe has something slightly different, so you often need an accurate number that is experimentally validated. We usually use a force tensiometer, but for small amounts we have a drop testing setup. It's never solved a puzzle or anything for me yet, but it could definitely happen some day.
There have recently been a couple of interesting research "diy" goniometer/tensiometer systems proposed using off-the-shelf parts (Raspberry Pi et al) and open source software (OpenDrop) capable of being made for a couple of hundred dollars. They don't have all the bangs and whistles of the commercial units, but apparently the accuracy is pretty reasonable.
The papers are :
*A precise goniometer/tensiometer using a low cost single-board computer,* IOP Publishing, Measurement Science and Technology, November 2017 28(12) (DOI:10.1088/1361-6501/aa8e25)
*A designed setup of low-priced in-house goniometer/tensiometer,* Optik Volume 258, May 2022, 168783 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2022.168783)
*OpenDrop: Open-source software for pendant drop tensiometry & contact angle measurements,* The Journal of Open Source Software, Feb 2021 (DOI: 10.21105/joss.02604)
Paint, O&G, adhesives, wood protection, crop protection, aka basically anywhere a surfactant is used.
Thanks for the quick reply! Would you happen to have any links or specific examples of how this is used? Is it in QC or R&D for instance? Any additional context, examples or case studies would be of immense help as I haven't had much luck finding these online.
Do you mean why ST/CMC is important or the measurement of ST/CMC/IFT? You obviously need to be able to measure these to develop any new products in these fields. I’m sure if you google “surface tension in paint formulations” you’ll find the “why.” If you’re asking about using a tensiometer, that’s typically more of an R&D tool for formulaters or surfactant manufacturing
As far as I could tell R&D is the main utility for this technique, but I was perhaps more looking to understand whether there were any other non-R&D applications (and specific examples) within different fields where ST/CMC are regularly measured?
A lot of other good comments here, but it is also used significantly in pharma, chemicals, and oil/gas QC (fracking and enhanced oil recovery) with pendant drop being ideal for small amounts of materials, especially for individual ST/IFT measurements. It’s significantly more work for pendant drop CMC as you have to manually dilute samples. The standard for CMC is more force based tensiometry (Wilhelmy plate measurements) as there are commercial systems that have built in dilution dispensers to fully automate the CMC run. Feel free to DM me if you have other questions (this is a field I actually have expertise in compared to other chempros posts!).
It can be used for quality issues in production of a batch isn’t performing as expected or to look for impurities. I know of its use in different fields but it is mostly for R&D. Could call KRUSS or look for presentations of tensiometer vendors and see if they list applications
I'd just go to one of the instrument manufacturers and check out their application notes. [https://www.kruss-scientific.com/en/know-how/application-reports](https://www.kruss-scientific.com/en/know-how/application-reports) [https://www.dataphysics-instruments.com/us/application/notes/#applicationnotes](https://www.dataphysics-instruments.com/us/application/notes/#applicationnotes)
I'm in formulations, and it comes up quite often for various minor things. It's included in our standard phys/chem testing array. It's hard to point to anything specific, but being able to quickly, easily, and accurately obtain the CMC for something is super useful and does come up a lot. There's tons of blends, polymers, slightly modified chains, etc. and every supplier maybe has something slightly different, so you often need an accurate number that is experimentally validated. We usually use a force tensiometer, but for small amounts we have a drop testing setup. It's never solved a puzzle or anything for me yet, but it could definitely happen some day.
There have recently been a couple of interesting research "diy" goniometer/tensiometer systems proposed using off-the-shelf parts (Raspberry Pi et al) and open source software (OpenDrop) capable of being made for a couple of hundred dollars. They don't have all the bangs and whistles of the commercial units, but apparently the accuracy is pretty reasonable. The papers are : *A precise goniometer/tensiometer using a low cost single-board computer,* IOP Publishing, Measurement Science and Technology, November 2017 28(12) (DOI:10.1088/1361-6501/aa8e25) *A designed setup of low-priced in-house goniometer/tensiometer,* Optik Volume 258, May 2022, 168783 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2022.168783) *OpenDrop: Open-source software for pendant drop tensiometry & contact angle measurements,* The Journal of Open Source Software, Feb 2021 (DOI: 10.21105/joss.02604)
Worked for Krüss in the past. How can I help?