Surfactants in paint agent". Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension of a liquid, the interfacial tension between two liquids, or the interfacial tension between a liquid and a solid. In solutions this behavior is known as wetting, and it occurs as a result of surfactants adsorbing to the air/water interface. Soluble surfactants are also capable of forming micelles and other aggregate structures in solution, leading to a stabilizing effect in latex paints. Surfactants in paint are used to change many end properties of a dried paint, as well as to emulsify paints in their liquid state. Surfactants affect a wide array
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