Contact angle measurement for polymeric membranes: software selection for ease of use and precision

Abstract

Contact angle measurement by sessile drop (SD) and captive bubble (CB) method is calculated by the four software, i.e. ‘Angle Tool’ plugin, Drop Snake (DS) plugin, and LB-ADSA plugin of the ImageJ®; and the Ossila® with their advantages and disadvantages. In this study, the ease of use and precision were tested by standard deviation calculation for different hydrophilic membranes. Angle Tool plugin, and DS plugin of ImageJ®; and the Ossila software gave high standard deviations due to rough cut membranes edges giving background shadows misleading the software algorithm. LB-ADSA plugin of the ImageJ® had both advantages of manual drop edge selection and algorithmic calculation of contact angle giving the lowest standard deviation. Therefore, we found that the LB-ADSA plugin of ImageJ® is precise for hydrophilic membranes by both SD and CB methods.