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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

A Method to Manipulate Surface Tension of a Liquid Metal via Surface Oxidation and Reduction
Published on: January 26, 2016
Calculation of the Surface Tension of Ordinary Organic and Ionic Liquids by Means of a Generally Applicable Computer
Rudolf Naef1, William E Acree2
1Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, 4003 Basel, Switzerland. rudolf.naef@unibas.ch.
Abstract:
The calculation of the surface tension of ordinary organic and ionic liquids, based on a computer algorithm applying a refined group-additivity method, is presented. The refinement consists of the complete breakdown of the molecules into their constituting atoms, further distinguishing them by their immediate neighbour atoms and bond constitution. The evaluation of the atom-groups' contributions was carried out by means of a fast Gauss-Seidel fitting method, founded upon the experimental data of 1893 compounds from literature. The result has been tested for plausibility using a 10-fold cross-validation (cv) procedure. The direct calculation and the cv test proved the applicability of the present method by the close similarity and excellent goodness of fit R² and Q² of 0.9039 and 0.8823, respectively. The respective standard deviations are ±1.99 and ±2.16 dyn/cm. Some correlation peculiarities have been observed in a series of ordinary and ionic liquids with homologous alkyl chains, as well as with di- and trihydroxy-groups-containing liquids, which have been discussed in detail, exhibiting the limit of the present method.
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