Session H4: Bubbles: Microbubbles and Nanobubbles

Collapse of Surface Nanobubbles

Surface nanobubbles are nanoscopic gaseous domains that entrap on immersed solid surfaces in water. They are surprisingly stable and are difficult to be distinguished from polymeric/hydrophobic drops and solid particles (contamination). Here, we report a comparative study of contact line motion across surface nanobubbles, polymeric drops and solid particles. We show that surface nanobubbles spontaneously collapse once contact line touches them while a fast jump process and a pinning process are observed on polymeric drops and on solid particles, respectively. These distinct contact line dynamics provide a new approach to identify surface nanobubbles. The collapse of surface nanobubbles demonstrates their gaseous property and also indicates that they are metastable. The collapse process last few milliseconds with a characteristic speed of 0.1 mm/s, which is much longer and slower than that of hydrodynamic phenomena. We further show that the collapse phenomenon can be explained with a microscopic contact line dynamics.   

Four-dimensional visualization of rising microbubbles

Four-dimensional imaging, which indicates imaging in three spatial dimensions as a function of time, provides useful evidence to investigate the interactions of rising bubbles. However, this has been largely unexplored for microbubbles, mostly due to problems associated with strong light scattering and shallow depth of field in optical imaging. Here, we developed tracking x-ray microtomography that is capable of visualizing rising microbubbles in four dimensions. Bubbles are tracked by moving the in-situ cell to account for their rise velocity. The sizes, shapes, time-dependent positions, and velocities of individual rising microbubbles are clearly identified, despite substantial overlaps between bubbles in the field of view. Our tracking x-ray microtomography affords opportunities for understanding bubble-bubble (or particle) interactions at microscales -- important in various fields such as microfluidics, biomechanics, and floatation.   

On the generation of mini-clusters of microbubbles using water electrolysis

The interest on microbubbles and their behavior under ultrasound excitation has increased over the last years. Several phenomena can be observed when microbubbles interact with an ultrasound field. For instance, they can oscillate at their natural frequency, translate in the direction of the acoustic pulse (due to the well-known Bjerknes force) or coalesce (due to the secondary Bjerknes force). To study these effects, it is convenient to have an isolated bubble or a cloud consisting of a few bubbles. Using electrolysis we are able to produce mini-clusters of bubbles with controlled parameters, namely, bubble number and size distribution. We achieve this control using voltage pulses of well-defined properties. The most remarkable characteristics of this technique are its low cost and ease of implementation. We illustrate the applications of the technique with some academic examples, like the validation of the expressions for the primary and secondary Bjerknes forces. Funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through grant DPI2011-28356-C03-02.   

Microfluidic pinball made of quasi-2D microbubbles: on the collective dynamics of confined bubbles pulsating under ultrasound

The pulsation properties of air bubbles under ultrasound have received much attention since the development of sonoporation and contrast agents. Spherical bubbles are well known to induce streaming when excited by ultrasound. Here we study how the vibration of very confined bubbles pinned to pits (assuming a quasi-2D ``pancake'' shape) influences the streaming inside a microfluidic channel. For a single bubble, 20 to 70 $\mu$m in radius, we observe the well-known parametric instability, giving rise to a shape deformation, and sketch a phase diagram of existence of the surface modes. We also evidence very active out-of-plane fluid circulations located near the bubble that are correlated with the surface modes. In the case of a bubble pair, the interaction results in an additional bipolar surface mode. We demonstrate that a long-range multipolar recirculating flow occurs from a combination of phase-lagged vibration modes. Using a large triangular lattice of these microbubbles, we obtain a unique acoustic bubble ``pinball'' driving fluid and particles in complex paths, the constructive interference between vibration modes leading to the elaborate in-plane microstreaming vortices. This work gives a new insight in bubbles efficiency to trigger local and non-local mixing in laminar flows.   

Lifetime of surface nanodroplets and surface nanobubbles

Surface nanodroplets are nanoscopic emulsion droplets (e.g. of oil) on (hydrophobic) substrates immersed in water. Correspondingly, surface nanobubbles are nanoscopic gaseous domains on water-immersed substrates. Both can form through local oversaturation of the water with oil or gas, respectively. Such local oversaturation can be achieved through solvent exchange. Here we study the lifetime of such surface nanodroplets and nanobubbles in clean and degassed water, showing how both dissolve over time. We highlight pinning effect which considerably extend the lifetime of both surface nanodroplets and nanobubbles and reveal stick-slip motion of the three phase contact line during the dissolution process. We also discuss collective effects which extend the lifetime too.   

Experimental microbubble generation by sudden pressure drop and fluidics

Mass and heat transfer, as well as chemical species in bubbly flow are of importance in environmental and industrial applications. Microbubbles are well suited to these applications due to the large interface contact area and residence time. The objective of this investigation is to build devices to produce microbubbles using two methods: pressure differences and fluidics. Some characteristics, advantages and drawbacks of both methods are briefly discussed, as well as the characterization of the bubbly suspensions in terms of parameters such as the pressure jump and bubble equivalent diameter distribution.   

Stability of gas supersaturation in water: Implication of the existence of bulk nanobubbles?

While nanobubbles sitting at solid surfaces are well known to exist for hours or even days, the existence of nanobubbles in the bulk of water is yet under discussion. However, recent molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the thermodynamic stability of bulk nanobubbles can possibly be supported by gas supersaturation in the liquid phase by having bubbles closely populated. Here, we demonstrate the production of supersaturated water by a commercial fine bubble generator. Micron and submicron bubbles are continuously injected in the system of tap water circulation for the water to be gas saturated through bubble dissolution. Dissolved oxygen measurements show gas supersaturation in the water which stays for a couple of days. To further support this observation, we examine the diffusion driven growth of millimeter-sized gas bubbles nucleated at glass surfaces. The growth rate is found to agree with the (extended) theory of Epstein and Plesset, meaning that the water is indeed supersaturated with gases. We speculate that a large number of nanobubbles in the bulk or attached at the surface of floating particles may possibly exist in the supersaturated tap water.   

Adherent nanoparticles-mediated micro- and nanobubble nucleation

Surface nanobubbles are commonly nucleated through water-ethanol-water exchange. It is believed that the higher gas solubility in ethanol and exothermic mixing leads to a supersaturation of gas in water. However details of the nucleation dynamic are still unknown. Here we apply the exchange process onto a glass surface deposited with nanoparticles and monitor the dynamics optically at video frame rates. During exchange bubbles of a few micron in diameter nucleate at the sites of nanoparticles. These microbubbles eventually dissolve in ethanol but are stable in water. This agrees with the nucleation process observed for surface nanobubbles. Also we find a reduction of surface attached nanobubbles near the particles, which might be due to gas uptake from the microbubble growth. Finally, high speed recordings reveal stick-slip motion of the triple contact line during the growth process. We will discuss possibilities of utilizing the findings for contamination detection and ultrasonic cleaning.   

Dynamics of Sub-Micron Bubbles Growing in a Wedge in the Low Capillary Number Regime

Using a hermetically-sealed liquid cell, we observed the growth and migration of bubbles (tens to hundreds of nanometers in diameter) with a transmission electron microscope. The internal pressure of the liquid caused the thin silicon nitride membranes that comprise the cell's observation windows to bow outward, creating spatial gradients in the liquid cell's height. As a result, growing bubbles migrated in the direction of increasing cell height. To better understand the migration dynamics, we developed a simple, two-dimensional model to predict the translational velocity of a bubble that makes contact with both wedge surfaces as a function of the bubble growth rate and wedge opening angle. The model is valid in the asymptotic limit of zero capillary number and relies on a phenomenological relationship between the contact line velocity and the dynamic contact angle. The theoretical predictions are compared with experimental observations.