[Determination of critical surface tension--a comparison of 2 methods]

Two methods for the determination of the critical surface tension (gamma c) of pharmaceutical powders are compared: the so called "sinking-technique", which works by measuring the complete sinking of powders in liquids of varying surface tension and the determination of the critical surface tension by measuring the contact angle in dependence on the surface tension of wetting solvent/water-mixtures by means of the sessile drop-technique. The simple sinking-technique gives gamma c-values which only show a moderate degree of agreement with those determined by the sessile drop-technique. Thus the values determined by the sinking-technique are usually 1-3 mN/m higher than those determined by the sessile drop-technique.