title: Structure and energy of liquid foams.
abstract: We present an overview of recent advances in the understanding of foam structure and energy and their dependence on liquid volume fraction. We consider liquid foams in equilibrium for which the relevant energy is surface energy. Measurements of osmotic pressure can be used to determine this as a function of liquid fraction in good agreement with results from computer simulations. This approach is particularly useful in the description of foams with high liquid content, so-called wet foams. For such foams X-ray tomography proves to be an important technique in analysing order and disorder. Much of the discussion in this article is also relevant to bi-liquid foams, i.e. emulsions, and to solid foams, provided that the solidification preserves the structure of the initially liquid foam template.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Solides, Université de Paris-Sud, CNRS UMR 8502, Orsay, France. Electronic address: Wiebke.Drenckhan@u-psud.fr.
authors.forename: Wiebke
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Drenckhan
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hutzler
keywords: Emulsion structure; Foam structure; Interfacial energy; Jamming; Osmotic pressure