High-resolution surface tension measurements have been carried out on the free-standing films of more than 30 selected liquid-crystal compounds in their smectic phases. Surface tension (g) values falling into major categories of 27, 24, 21, 13, and 11.5 dyn/cm have been obtained. The dependence of g on specific terminal groups or molecular structures will be discussed. Our results provide important information about the molecular origin of surface tension.

doi.org/10.1021/la980224j
Langmuir

Mach, P., Huang, C. C., Stoebe, T., Wedell, E. D., Nguyen, T., de Jeu, W. H., Guittard, F., Naciri, J., Shashidhar, R., Clark, N. A., Jiang, I. M., Kao, F. J., Liu, H.& Nohira, H. (1998). Surface tension obtained from various smectic free-standing films: The molecular origin of surface tension. Langmuir, 14, 4330–4341.https://doi.org/10.1021/la980224j