Environmental issues have surfaced in almost every form of manufacturing and in many instances the focus of product improvement research involves surface chemistry measurement technologies. Pesticides that adhere better to a leaf are less likely to wash into the soil. This clearly reduces the number of sprayings required. The surface tension of the pesticide or fertilizer formulations directly affects their spreading on plant leaves or in soil, which influences the effectiveness of the formulation. The contact angle of different pesticide formulations on plant leaves can be used to find the optimum composition of the pesticide formulation. Oil polluted areas can be treated by surfactant solutions, and the cleaning process can be followed by contact angle measurements on the treated samples.
The level of surfactant pollution from household detergents and fabric conditioners in waste water, rivers, and lakes can easily be monitored using surface tension. Air pollution levels can be estimated by measuring the surface tension of water samples from melted ice or snow. Attension provides a range of products for surface/interfacial tension (Theta and Sigma series) and contact angle measurements (Theta and Sigma series) enabling development of more environmentally friendly formulations, or monitoring pollution levels in different geographical environments (ThetaLite, AL & OL).