Question

Which has more surface tension oil or water?

Answer 1

Hint: Surface tension is the propensity of liquid surfaces to shrink to the smallest possible surface area while they are at rest. Surface tension is what permits things with a higher density than water, such as razor blades and insects (such as water striders), to float on a water surface without even getting partially immersed. Surface tension is caused by the stronger attraction of liquid molecules to each other (due to cohesion) than air molecules at liquid–air contacts (due to adhesion)

Complete answer:
Wetting, spreading, foaming, and emulsification all require lowering the surface tension of a solvent. Although not all molecules that decrease surface tension will supply all of these services, a molecule that does not lower surface tension will not be able to give all of these desirable features. The surface tension of water is quite strong (72 dynes/cm). With conventional water-soluble fatty surfactants, it can be reduced to 32–35 dynes/cm. As a result, correctly chosen fatty surfactants can moisten, foam, emulsify, or make aqueous solutions easier to distribute.
Surface tension is one of the most significant differences between oil and water. Because oil has a surface tension of 30–35 dynes/cm, oil-soluble fatty surfactants do not reduce the surface tension of oils to the required level. Silicone and its fluoro derivatives are the families of chemicals that can give surface tension decrease below 30–35 dynes/cm. Surface tension is a term used in materials science to describe either surface stress or surface energy.

Note:
Water has a greater surface tension (72.8 millinewtons (mN) per metre at \[20\text{ }{}^\circ C\]) than most other liquids due to the comparatively high attraction of water molecules to each other through a web of hydrogen bonds. The phenomena of capillarity is influenced by surface tension. The force per unit length, or energy per unit area, is the dimension of surface tension. Although the two terms are interchangeable, when discussing energy per unit of area, it is more customary to use the word surface energy, which is a more generic term that also applies to solids.