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Understanding the formation of gas bubbles at liquid–liquid interfaces

The formation of bubbles at liquid–liquid interfaces is challenging to explain because gas pockets cannot be stabilized by cracks on solid impurities. Experiments show that a difference in the gas solubilities of two immiscible liquids provides a gas reservoir, which allows gas to accumulate at the interface, leading to bubble formation.

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Fig. 1: Cavitation at liquid–liquid interfaces.

References

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This is a summary of: Pfeiffer, P. et al. Heterogeneous cavitation from atomically smooth liquid–liquid interfaces. Nat. Phys. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01764-z (2022).

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Understanding the formation of gas bubbles at liquid–liquid interfaces. Nat. Phys. 18, 1410–1411 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-022-01765-y

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