Contact angle interpretation: re-evaluation of existing contact angle data

We have recently shown that static contact angles measured by conventional goniometer techniques could be meaningless in the context of the Young equa tion. There is an abundance of contact angles in the literature that are of unknown status. Here, we explored whether one should completely neglect th e literature contact angle data. Existing static contact angles for 34 diff erent types of solid surfaces from Zisman and co-workers were evaluated in terms of their solid surface tensions using experimental contact angle patt erns. A FORTRAN computer program was implemented to automate these procedur es. It was found that literature contact angles do not have to be discarded completely; they can be used to determine solid surface tensions, with cau tion. The surface tensions for the 34 solid surfaces from Zisman et al. are also reported. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.