Wetting films of polar and nonpolar liquids

Disjoining pressure isotherms for water and n-octane films on glass obtained using a recently developed apparatus, based on the interferometric technique, are compared with other values reported in the literature. Our method, including a simple cleaning procedure, yields experimental results in excellent agreement both with other experimental results and with theoretical predictions. An error analysis was made which quantifies the uncertainty of our results and simultaneously allows the minimization of the errors. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.