The nature and strength of intermolecular and surface forces are the key factors that influence the solvation, adhesion and wetting phenomena. The universal cohesive energy prediction equation based on conductor-like screening model (COSMO-UCE) was extended from like molecules (pure liquids) to unlike molecules (dissimilar liquids). A new molecular-thermodynamic model of interfacial tension (IFT) for liquid-liquid and solid-liquid systems was developed in this work, which can predict the surface free energy of solid materials and interfacial energy directly through cohesive energy calculations based on COSMO-UCE. The applications of this model in prediction of IFT for water-organic, solid (n-hexatriacontane, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and octadecyl-amine monolayer)-liquid systems have been verified extensively with successful results; which indicates that this is a straightforward and reliable model of surface and interfacial energies through predicting intermolecular interactions based on merely molecular structure (profiles of surface segment charge density), the dimensionless wetting coefficient RA/C can characterize the wetting behavior (poor adhesive (non-wetting), wetting, spreading) of liquids on the surface of solid materials very well.
Keywords: cohesive energy; interfacial tension; surface free energy; wetting coefficient; work of adhesion.
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