Interfacial Thermal Fluctuations Stabilize Bulk Nanobubbles

YY Chen and Y Hu and BL Wang and XS Chu and LW Zhang, PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 133, 104001 (2024).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.104001

Consensus on bulk nanobubble stability remains elusive, despite accepted indirect evidence for longevity. We develop a nanobubble evolution model by incorporating thermal capillary wave theory that reveals that dense nanobubbles generated by acoustic cavitation tend to shrink and intensify interfacial thermal fluctuations; this significantly reduces surface tension to neutralize enhanced Laplace pressure, and secures their stabilization at a finite size. A stability criterion emerges: thermal fluctuation intensity scales superlinearly with curvature: root < h(2)>proportional to(1/R)(n), n>1. The model prolongs the time frame for nanobubble contraction to 2 orders of magnitude beyond classical theory estimates, and captures the equilibrium radius (90-215 nm) within the experimental range.

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