How Dissolved Gas and High-Intensity Ultrasound Are Coupled to Affect Bubble Cavitation

JH Hu and YB Zhou and BY Ye and J Li and XR Zhang, JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B, 129, 10584-10594 (2025).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5c05717

Bubble cavitation plays a pivotal role in various ultrasound applications, but ultrasound-induced cavitation poses a challenge to our present understanding. Here, we employ both theoretical analysis and molecular dynamics simulations to study the dissolved gas-enhanced cavitation and subsequent evolution of nanoscale cavitating bubbles under high-intensity ultrasound. The simulation results reveal that dissolved gas indeed promotes the formation of cavitating bubbles, which strongly interact with the applied ultrasound. First, the bubble formation causes a significant distortion of the surrounding acoustic field, especially weakening the negative pressure during the negative pressure phase of the ultrasound. Second, the ultrasonic amplitude and frequency, along with the type of dissolved gas, affect bubble evolution via interface-crossing gas transfer. Different responses of CO2 and CH4 bubbles to the exerted ultrasound are interpreted by the liquefaction of CO2 molecules in nanoscale bubbles, the relatively low solubility of CH4, and the lagging of gas molecule transfer behind the pressure variation.

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