Lecture 12: Surface Energy and Surface Tension

This is the first of three lectures for Chapter 5. The first lecture will review surface energy and tension, beginning with a description of total surface energy based on the loss of molecular interactions. We will also review the thermodynamics of surfaces and develop a useful predictive expression for interfacial energies utilizing surface energy values for the pure components composing the interface. The second half of the lecture focuses on the mechanical description of surface forces or surface tension. This surface tension description greatly simplifies explanations for how various test methods gauge its magnitude.