In this study, a smartphone-based contact angle measurement instrument was developed. Compared with the traditional measurement instruments, this instrument has the advantage of simplicity, compact size, and portability. An automatic contact point detection algorithm was developed to allow the instrument to correctly detect the drop contact points. Two different contact angle calculation methods, Young-Laplace and polynomial fitting methods, were implemented in this instrument. The performance of this instrument was tested first with ideal synthetic drop profiles. It was shown that the accuracy of the new system with ideal synthetic drop profiles can reach 0.01% with both Young-Laplace and polynomial fitting methods. Conducting experiments to measure both static and dynamic (advancing and receding) contact angles with the developed instrument, we found that the smartphone-based instrument can provide accurate and practical measurement results as the traditional commercial instruments. The successful demonstration of use of a smartphone (mobile phone) to conduct contact angle measurement is a significant advancement in the field as it breaks the dominate mold of use of a computer and a bench bound setup for such systems since their appearance in 1980s.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
March 2018
Research Article|
March 30 2018
Contact angle measurement with a smartphone
H. Chen;
H. Chen
a)
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, York University
, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
Jesus L. Muros-Cobos;
Jesus L. Muros-Cobos
a)
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, York University
, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
2
Department of Software Engineering, University of Granada
, Granada 18010, Spain
Search for other works by this author on:
A. Amirfazli
A. Amirfazli
b)
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, York University
, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
Search for other works by this author on:
a)
H. Chen and J. L. Muros-Cobos contributed equally to this work.
b)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]. Tel.: +1-416-736-5901.
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 89, 035117 (2018)
Article history
Received:
January 14 2018
Accepted:
March 03 2018
Citation
H. Chen, Jesus L. Muros-Cobos, A. Amirfazli; Contact angle measurement with a smartphone. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1 March 2018; 89 (3): 035117. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5022370
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
Overview of the early campaign diagnostics for the SPARC tokamak (invited)
M. L. Reinke, I. Abramovic, et al.
An instrumentation guide to measuring thermal conductivity using frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR)
Dylan J. Kirsch, Joshua Martin, et al.
A glovebox-integrated confocal microscope for quantum sensing in inert atmosphere
Kseniia Volkova, Abhijeet M. Kumar, et al.
Related Content
Looking into the Eye with a Smartphone
Phys. Teach. (February 2015)
Analyzing planetary transits with a smartphone
Phys. Teach. (March 2015)
Use smartphones to measure Brewster’s angle
Phys. Teach. (February 2019)
Evaluation of smartphone sound measurement applications
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (March 2014)
Smartphone controlled robotic arm for hospital pharmacy automation
AIP Conf. Proc. (October 2024)