Influence of oxygen contamination on the surface tension of liquid tin.

The surface tension of liquid has been measured by the sessile-drop technique as a function of temperature, in the range 232 <=T(°C)<=800 and under different atmospheres. It is shown that oxygen strongly affects the surface tension values and that, under "nominally" very clean conditions, a considerable scatter of experimental results occurs. This scatter can be explained by taking into account kinetic factors, especially those related to the gaseous fluxes around the molten drop. By this procedure, a number of experimental results, the followion expression for surface tension politherm is proposed: [sigma](mNm(-1)=581-0,13)(t-232).