Collective behavior of bulk nanobubbles produced by alternating polarity electrolysis.

Nanobubbles in liquids are mysterious gaseous objects with exceptional stability. They promise a wide range of applications, but their production is not well controlled and localized. Alternating polarity electrolysis of water is a tool that can control the production of bulk nanobubbles in space and time without generating larger bubbles.

Electrically controlled cloud of bulk nanobubbles in water solutions.

Using different experimental techniques we visualize a cloud of gas in water that is produced electrochemically by the alternating polarity process. Liquid enriched with gas does not contain bubbles strongly scattering visible light but its refractive index changes significantly near the electrodes. The change of the refractive index is a collective effect of bulk nanobubbles with a diameter smaller than 200 nm.

Highly energetic phenomena in water electrolysis.

Water electrolysis performed in microsystems with a fast change of voltage polarity produces optically invisible nanobubbles containing H and O gases. In this form the gases are able to the reverse reaction of water formation. Here we report extreme phenomena observed in a millimeter-sized open system.

Capillary-force measurement on SiC surfaces.

Capillary forces have been measured by atomic force microscopy in the sphere-plate geometry, in a controlled humidity environment, between smooth silicon carbide and borosilicate glass spheres. The force measurements were performed as a function of the rms surface roughness ∼4-14 nm mainly due to sphere morphology, the relative humidity (RH) ∼0%-40%, the applied load on the cantilever, and the contact time. The pull-off force was found to decrease by nearly two orders of magnitude with increasing rms roughness from 8 to 14 nm due to formation of a few capillary menisci for the roughest surfaces, while it remained unchanged for rms roughness <8 nm implying fully wetted surface features leading to a single meniscus.