title: Surface bubble nucleation stability.
abstract: Recent research has revealed several different techniques for nanoscopic gas nucleation on submerged surfaces, with findings seemingly in contradiction with each other. In response to this, we have systematically investigated the occurrence of surface nanobubbles on a hydrophobized silicon substrate for various different liquid temperatures and gas concentrations, which we controlled independently. We found that nanobubbles occupy a distinct region of this parameter space, occurring for gas concentrations of approximately 100%-110%. Below the nanobubble region we did not detect any gaseous formations on the substrate, whereas micropancakes (micron wide, nanometer high gaseous domains) were found at higher temperatures and gas concentrations. We moreover find that supersaturation of dissolved gases is not a requirement for nucleation of bubbles.
authors.affiliation: Physics of Fluids, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands. j.r.t.seddon@utwente.nl
authors.forename: James R T
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Seddon
authors.forename: E Stefan
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Kooij
authors.forename: Bene
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Poelsema
authors.forename: Harold J W
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Zandvliet
authors.forename: Detlef
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lohse