Surface tension describes how difficult it is to extend the area of a surface (by stretching or distorting it). If surface tension is high, there is a large free energy required to increase the surface area, so the surface will tend to contract and hold together like a rubber sheet.
There are various factors affecting surface tension, one of which is that the composition of the surface may be different from the bulk. For example, if water is mixed with a tiny amount of surfactants (for example, hand soap), the bulk water may be 99% water molecules and 1% soap molecules, but the topmost surface of the water may be 50% water molecules and 50% soap molecules. In this case, the soap has a large and positive "surface excess". In other examples, the surface excess may be negative: For example, if water is mixed with an inorganic salt like sodium chloride, the surface of the water is on average less salty and more pure than the bulk average.
Consider again the example of water with a bit of soap. Since the water surface needs to have higher concentration of soap than the bulk, whenever the water's surface area is increased, it is necessary to remove soap molecules from the bulk and add them to the new surface. If the concentration of soap is increased a bit, the soap molecules are more readily available (they have higher chemical potential), so it is easier to pull them from the bulk in order to create the new surface. Since it is easier to create new surface, the surface tension is lowered. The general principle is:
:When the surface excess of a component is positive, increasing the chemical potential of that component reduces the surface tension.
Next consider the example of water with salt. The water surface is less salty than bulk, so whenever the waters surface area is increased, it is necessary to remove salt molecules from the new surface and push them into bulk. If the concentration of salt is increased a bit (raising the salts chemical potential), it becomes harder to push away the salt molecules. Since it is now harder to create the new surface, the surface tension is higher. The general principle is:
:When the surface excess of a component is negative, increasing the chemical potential of that component increases the surface tension.
The Gibbs isotherm equation gives the exact quantitative relationship for these trends.