Coalescence In Draining Foams Made of Very Small Bubbles

Zenaida Briceño-Ahumada, Wiebke Drenckhan, and Dominique Langevin
Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 128302 – Published 22 March 2016
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Abstract

We studied the stability of foams containing small bubbles (radius 50μm). The foams are made from aqueous surfactant solutions containing various amounts of glycerol. The foams start breaking at their top, when the liquid volume fraction has decreased sufficiently during liquid drainage. Unlike in foams with larger bubbles, the liquid fraction at which the foam destabilizes is surprisingly high. In order to interpret this observation we propose that film rupture occurs during reorganization events (T1) induced by bubble coarsening, which is particularly rapid in the case of small bubbles. New films are therefore formed rapidly and if their thickness is too small, they cannot be sufficiently covered by surfactant and they break. Using literature data for the duration of T1 events and the thickness of the new films, we show that this mechanism is consistent with the behavior of the foams studied.

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  • Received 4 December 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.128302

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
  1. Physical Systems
Polymers & Soft Matter

Authors & Affiliations

Zenaida Briceño-Ahumada1,2, Wiebke Drenckhan1, and Dominique Langevin1,*

  • 1Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, CNRS, Université Paris Sud, Université Paris Saclay, Bâtiment 510, 91400 Orsay Cedex, France
  • 2Departamento de Investigación en Polímeros y Materiales de la Universidad de Sonora Blvd. Luis Encinas y Rosales s/n, 83000 Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico

  • *Corresponding author. dominique.langevin@u-psud.fr

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Issue

Vol. 116, Iss. 12 — 25 March 2016

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