From Individual Liquid Films to Macroscopic Foam Dynamics: A Comparison between Polymers and a Nonionic Surfactant.

ABSTRACT: Foams can resist destabilizaton in ways that appear similar on a macroscopic scale, but the microscopic origins of the stability and the loss thereof can be quite diverse. Here, we compare both the macroscopic drainage and ultimate collapse of aqueous foams stabilized by either a partially hydrolyzed poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) or a nonionic low-molecular-weight surfactant (BrijO10) with the dynamics of individual thin films at the microscale. From this comparison, we gain significant insight regarding the effect of both surface stresses and intermolecular forces on macroscopic foam stability. Distinct regimes in the lifetime of the foams were observed. Drainage at early stages is controlled by the different stress-boundary conditions at the surfaces of the bubbles between the polymer and th

SUBMITTER: Mikhailovskaya A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9454262 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature