Abstract
IT is generally supposed that on metals as well as on water the fatty oils and fatty acids should possess a more pronounced spreading tendency than the mineral oils, yet experiments show that this is not the case. Buckley and Snyder (J. Amer. Chem. Soc., Jan.) have confirmed this observation and have discovered an interesting phenomenon of rupture of thin layers of liquid on a solid surface due to the instability created by an underlying adsorbed film of low surface energy. Fatty oils and fatty acids lower the static coefficient of friction between metal surfaces more than do mineral oils of the same viscosity, and a mineral oil containing a small percentage of a fatty acid lowers the friction almost as much as a pure fatty oil. This is in agreement with a preferential adsorption of fatty acid on the metal surface, indicating that these acids lower the surface tensions of metals more than do mineral oils.
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Spreading of Liquids on Solid Surfaces. Nature 131, 407–408 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131407b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131407b0