Repulsive van der Waals Forces in Soft Matter: Why Bubbles Do Not Stick to Walls

Rico F. Tabor, Rogerio Manica, Derek Y. C. Chan, Franz Grieser, and Raymond R. Dagastine

Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 064501 – Published 11 February 2011

Abstract

Measurements of nonequilibrium hydrodynamic interactions between bubbles and solid surfaces in water provide direct evidence that repulsive van der Waals forces of quantum origin control the behavior of liquid films on solids in air. In addition to being the simplest and most universal 3-phase system, the deformable air-water interface greatly enhances the sensitivity of force measurements compared with rigid systems. The strength of the repulsive interaction, controlled by the choice of solid, is sufficient to prevent coalescence (sticking) on separation due to hydrodynamic interactions.

Received 12 September 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.064501

Authors & Affiliations

Rico F. Tabor^1,5, Rogerio Manica², Derek Y. C. Chan^2,3,5, Franz Grieser^4,5, and Raymond R. Dagastine^1,5,*

¹Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia
²Institute of High Performance Computing, Singapore 138632, Singapore
³Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia
⁴School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia
⁵Particulate Fluids Processing Centre, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia

^*Corresponding author. rrd@unimelb.edu.au

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Vol. 106, Iss. 6 — 11 February 2011

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