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 equation. There is an abundance of contact angles in the literature that are of unknown status. Here, we explored whether one should completely neglect the literature contact angle data. Existing static contact angles for 34 different types of solid surfaces from Zisman and co-workers were evaluated in terms of their solid surface tensions using experimental contact angle patterns. A fortran computer program was implemented to automate these procedures. It was found that literature contact angles do not have to be discarded completely; they can be used to determine solid surface tensions, with caution. The surface tensions for the 34 solid surfaces from Zisman et al. are also reported.