Mindanao State University Iligan Institute of Technology

Department of Ceramics, Metallurgical, and Mining Engineering

Laboratory Report v.1.0

MEASUREMENT OF SURFACE TENSION BY

CAPILLARY RISE METHOD
Ronnie Estolano, Karen Pearl F. Esmero, Kathleen R. Cabigon, Advent Fel R. Baez, Patrick John I. Colades

Metallurgical, Ceramics, and Mining Engineering Department, College of Engineering,

MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, Iligan city, Philippines

ABSTRACT

The objective of the activity is to acquaint the students with the capillary rise method
and consequently the determination of the surface tension of a given liquid. This is the oldest
method used for surface tension determination. A consequence of the surface tension
appearance at the liquid/gas interface is moving up of the liquid into a thin tube, which isa
capillary, where in this experiment will be using a pipette. This phenomenon was applied for
determination of the liquid surface tension. For this purpose, a thin circular capillary is
dipped into the tested liquid.
If the interaction forces of the liquid with the capillary walls (adhesion) are stronger
than those between the liquid molecules (cohesion), the liquid wets the walls and rises in the
capillary to a defined level and the meniscus is hemispherically concave.

To be submitted: April 5, 2017

INTRODUCTION

Surface tension is the elastic tendency of a fluid surface which makes it acquire the
least surface area possible. It is measured in force per unit length. Its SI unit is newton per meter
but the cgs unit of dyne per centimeter is also used.
=F/l
In this experiment we will determine the surface tension of water by capillary rise
method. The capillary rise in a narrow tube can be estimated by using the angle of contact. Capillarity
is the combined effect of cohesive and adhesive forces that cause liquids to rise in tubes of very
small diameter. In case of water in a capillary tube, the adhesive force draws it up along the sides
of the glass tube to form a meniscus. The cohesive force also acts at the same time to minimize
the distance between the water molecules by pulling the bottom of the meniscus up against the
force of gravity.
 Consider the situation depicted in Fig. 1, in which the end of a capillary tube of radius, r,
is immersed in a liquid of density . For sufficiently small capillaries, one observes a substantial
rise of liquid to height, h, in the capillary, because of the force exerted on the liquid due to
surface tension. Equilibrium occurs when the force of gravity on the volume of liquid balances
the force due to surface tension. The balance point can be used to measure the surface tension.
Thus, at equilibrium force of gravity is given as,

F g=h ( r 2 ) g (1)

Where g is the acceleration due to gravity.

Force due to surface tension (see Fig. 2) is along the perimeter of the liquid. Let be the
angle of contact of the liquid on glass. The vertical component of the force (upward) at
equilibrium is given as,
F= 2 r cos (2)
Assuming to be very small and neglecting the curvature of liquid surface at the
boundaries, one can obtain surface tension by equating Eqs. 2 and 3 as follows:
1
= grh (3)
2
It should also be noted that surface tension of a liquid depends very markedly upon the
presence of impurities in the liquid and upon temperature.

Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Chemicals and equipment used

Thermostat bath Aspirator

Ethanol Pipette
25-mL test tube

Procedures
We set up a thermostat bath at room temperature, then poured 10 mL of pure ethanol into
the 25 mL test tube and placed it on the water bath and allowed it to reach equal temperature
with the water. The test tube was placed in such a way that the ethanol and the water were in the
same level, and it did not touch the bottom of the water bath so as to avoid temperature changes.
A pipette was used as an alternative for a capillary tube held in reversed position, was
placed inside the test tube containing ethanol. With the use of an aspirator, we performed three
trials of pumping the ethanol and allowed it to reach a constant height. This height was measured
to be used for calculating the surface tension of ethanol.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Three trials on measured on the constant height of the ethanols capillary rise are as
follows,
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 4 Average
0.3 0.4 0.4 0.3667

Using the average value as h to calculate for the surface tension,

1
= grh
2

1 kg m

2(785
m )( )
9.8 2 ( 0.0015 m )( 0.003667 m )
s

=0.02116

N
Using the theoretical value of surface tension of ethanol which is =0.02182
m , we

can then calculate the percent error,

 theoretical valuecomputed value
error = 100
theoretical value

0.021820.02116
100
0.02182

error =3.02

With an error of only 3.02 we can therefore conclude that the experiment was well-
performed.

REFERENCES

[1] Calvert, James B. "Surface Tension (physics lecture notes)". University of Denver.
Retrieved 2007-09-08.
[2] Vargaftik, N. B.; Volkov, B. N.; Voljak, L. D. (1983). "International Tables of the Surface
Tension of Water". Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data. 12 (3): 817
[3] Calder, V. and D. Plano, 2002. "Measuring Surface Tension." Ask A Scientist Physics
Archive, University of Chicago, Newton BBS.
[4[ Fried, Ilana. The Chemistry of Electrode Processes. Elsevier, 2012