Interactions of components and elements of the surface free energy at interfaces

Abstract

A new hypothesis is suggested for the evaluation of the components (γd and γab) and the elements (γa and γb) of the surface free energy. The respective equations are introduced for the interactions at interfaces between a non-polar acid and non-polar base, a polar phase and non-polar acid or base, and two polar phases. The dispersion component, γd, equals the total surface free energy of non-polar phases. However, they can interact at the interface as an acid or a base through their single permanent elements γa or γb, respectively. Otherwise, induced elements γia and γib can also be effective. The surface free energy of polar phases is additively composed of the dispersion, γd, and acid-base components, γab = 2(γaγb)1/2. The proposed equation are verified using the known values of the surface and interfacial free energies for the liquid-liquid systems and they are applied to the solid-liquid interfaces. The values of the elements are determined for water, γwa = 67.7 and γwb = 10.6 mJ/m2, and for other liquids, such as glycerol, formamide, mercury, benzene, diethyl ether and trichloromethane.