2.4. Pendant Drop Tensiometer Setup

The pendant drop tensiometer setup consists of borosilicate glass cuvette, a 100 μL Hamilton syringe held vertically by a Legato 130 programmable syringe pump from KD Scientific fixed to a stainless-steel stand, a Pixelink PL-B776F CCD camera, a Thorlabs, OSL1 High Intensity Fiber Illuminator light source and a glass diffuser. All units are mounted on a linear rail on a Kinetic Systems, Vibraplane 5720E-3036-21 vibration free table. This system is stored in a temperature-controlled room and each experiment was conducted at 21 ± 0.1 °C. Before each experiment, the enclosure was wiped with methanol to remove any dust. The syringe and cuvette were each cleaned with KOH solution consisting of 24 g of pure water, 24 g of KOH, and 164 g of ethanol, followed by at least three rinses with deionized water and finally with three rinses of HPLC-grade water, and then left to dry completely in a clean environment at 21 °C.