Surfactant order to manipulate growth. and assembly of the dots, reactions on their surface, electrical properties, etc., it is important to understand how surfactants arrange on the surface of the quantum dots. Surfactant Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension (or interfacial tension) between two liquids, between a gas and a liquid, or between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents, and dispersants. The term "surfactant" is a blend of "surface active agent". In the United States National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary, "surfactant" is reserved for the meaning
Surface tension entropy, energy and free energy. As stated above, the mechanical work needed to increase a surface area "A" is . Hence at constant temperature and pressure, surface tension equals Gibbs free energy per surface area: where is Gibbs free energy and is the area. Thermodynamics requires that all spontaneous changes of state are accompanied by a decrease in Gibbs free energy. From this it is easy to understand why decreasing the surface area of a mass of liquid is always spontaneous (), provided it is not coupled to any other energy changes. It follows that in order to increase surface