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Additional Comments on “An Essay on Contact Angle Measurements” by M. Strobel and C. S. Lyons
Author(s) -
Montes RuizCabello Francisco Javier,
RodríguezValverde Miguel Angel,
CabrerizoVílchez Miguel A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.201100043
Subject(s) - contact angle , hysteresis , materials science , surface energy , metastability , wilhelmy plate , pressure angle , relaxation (psychology) , chemistry , condensed matter physics , physics , composite material , social psychology , psychology , organic chemistry , astronomy
After the impact of the great review of M. Strobel and C. S. Lyons on contact angle measurements, we discuss some claims of the authors. The Wilhelmy method is not generally “the best technique for measuring the contact angle hysteresis” as the authors claimed. Otherwise, we think that, even though equilibrium contact angle is an “unattainable” angle, the most‐stable contact angle obtained from the system relaxation is experimentally accessible. The most‐stable contact angle is energetically significant for evaluating quantitatively the surface energy value of rough, chemically homogeneous surfaces from the Wenzel equation, and the average surface energy of smooth, chemically heterogeneous surfaces from the Cassie equation. The most‐stable contact angle, the advancing contact angle and the receding contact angles enable the thermodynamic description of the range of contact angle hysteresis and the distribution of metastable system configurations.