A remnant drop method for improving the uncertainty in surface tension measurements of volatile liquids using fibre drop analysis

摘要

Fibre drop analysis is a new multi-analysis technology for measuring the physical and chemical properties of liquids. One parameter that can be measured by the fibre drop analyser is surface tension. The conventional method for surface tension measurement is the constant volume delivery mode, in which the uncertainty is mainly caused by evaporation. We present here a remnant drop (RD) method to improve the uncertainty in measuring volatile liquids. The method measures the mass and vibration frequency of the RD and calculates the surface tension by comparing the measured liquid with a reference liquid. A RD model is presented to analyse the surface tension. The experimental results show that the method improved the accuracy of surface tension measurements by about 60% for a volatile liquid (e.g. ether).