Dynamics of a camphoric acid boat at the air–water interface

We report experiments on an agarose gel tablet loaded with camphoric acid (c-boat) spontaneously set into motion by surface tension gradients on the water surface. We observe three distinct modes of c-boat motion: harmonic mode where the c-boat speed oscillates sinusoidally in time, a steady mode where the c-boat maintains constant speed, and an intermittent mode where the c-boat maintains near-zero speed between sudden jumps in speed. Whereas all three modes have been separately reported before in different systems, controlled release of Camphoric Acid (CA) from the agarose gel matrix allowed the observation of all the three modes in the same system. These three modes are a result of a competition between the driving (surface tension gradients) and drag forces acting on the c-boat. Moreover we suggest that there exist two time scales corresponding to spreading of CA and boat motion and the mismatch of these two time scales give rise to the three modes in boat motion. We reproduced all the modes of motion by varying the air–water interfacial tension using Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate (SDS).     

Pulse laser ablation at water–air interface

We studied a new pulse laser ablation phenomenon on a liquid surface layer, which is caused by the difference between the refractive indices of the two materials involved. The present study was motivated by our previous study, which showed that laser ablation can occur at the interface between a transparent material and a gas or liquid medium when the laser pulse is focused through the transparent material. In this case, the ablation threshold fluence is reduced remarkably. In the present study, experiments were conducted in water and air in order to confirm this phenomenon for a combination of two fluid media with different refractive indices. This phenomenon was observed in detail by pulse laser shadowgraphy. A high-resolution film was used to record the phenomenon with a Nd:YAG pulse laser with 10-ns duration as a light source. The laser ablation phenomenon on the liquid surface layer caused by a focused Nd:YAG laser pulse with 1064-nm wavelength was found to be followed by the splashing of the liquid surface, inducing a liquid jet with many ligaments. The liquid jet extension velocity was around 1000 m/s in a typical case. The liquid jet decelerated drastically due to rapid atomization at the tips of the ligaments. The liquid jet phenomenon was found to depend on the pulse laser parameters such as the laser fluence on the liquid surface, laser energy, and laser beam pattern. The threshold laser fluence for the generation of a liquid jet was 20 J/cm². By increasing the incident laser energy with a fixed laser fluence, the laser focused area increased, which eventually led to an increase in the size of the plasma column. The larger the laser energy, the larger the jet size and the longer the temporal behavior. The laser beam pattern was found to have significant effects on the liquid jet’s velocity, shape, and history.     

An investigation of strong backflow events at the interface of air–water systems using large-eddy simulation

A large-eddy simulation of a counter-current gas–liquid flow is performed. At the flat interface where the different fluids meet, continuity of momentum and momentum fluxes are enforced following the work of Lombardi et al. [Direct numerical simulation of near-interface turbulence in coupled gas-liquid flow. Phys Fluids. 1996;8(6):1643–1665]. The increase in vertical vorticity fluctuations near the interface increases mixing, reducing the thickness of the inner region of the boundary layer. Such increase reduces shear while allowing for more frequent backflow motions in the inner region, being this phenomenon stronger on water. Due to the higher inertia of water these backflow motions are ultimately responsible for the streaky structure of shear stresses seen along the interface. The present study shows that such bimodality in the streamwise velocities is also seen in the angle distribution of vorticity relative to the interface, where such angles are linked to the presence of interface-connected and quasi-streamwise vortex cores. Finally, it is shown that backflow events on the interface shear stresses correlate with coupled ‘strong’ ejections in the near interface region despite the disparagingly different near-interface streamwise velocity distributions on the near interface boundary layers.     

Adsorption kinetics of alkanethiol-capped gold nanoparticles at the hexane–water interface

The pendant drop technique was used to characterize the adsorption behavior of n-dodecane-1-thiol and n-hexane-1-thiol-capped gold nanoparticles at the hexane–water interface. The adsorption process was studied by analyzing the dynamic interfacial tension versus nanoparticle concentration, both at early times and at later stages (i.e., immediately after the interface between the fluids is made and once equilibrium has been established). A series of gold colloids were made using nanoparticles ranging in size from 1.60 to 2.85 nm dissolved in hexane for the interfacial tension analysis. Following free diffusion of nanoparticles from the bulk hexane phase, adsorption leads to ordering and rearrangement of the nanoparticles at the interface and formation of a dense monolayer. With increasing interfacial coverage, the diffusion-controlled adsorption for the nanoparticles at the interface was found to change to an interaction-controlled assembly and the presence of an adsorption barrier was experimentally verified. At the same bulk concentration, different sizes of n-dodecane-1-thiol nanoparticles showed different absorption behavior at the interface, in agreement with the findings of Kutuzov et al. (Phys Chem Chem Phys 9:6351–6358, 2007). The experiments additionally demonstrated the important role played by the capping agent. At the same concentration, gold nanoparticles stabilized by n-hexane-1-thiol exhibited greater surface activity than gold nanoparticles of the same size stabilized by n-dodecane-1-thiol. These findings contribute to the design of useful supra-colloidal structures by the self-assembly of alkane-thiol-capped gold nanoparticles at liquid–liquid interfaces.     

Response properties at the dynamic water/dichloroethane liquid–liquid interface

ABSTRACT

We present a novel approach for calculating the static dielectric permittivity profile of a liquid–liquid interface (LLI) from molecular dynamics simulations. To obtain well-defined features, comparable to those observed at solid–liquid interfaces, we find it essential to reference to the instantaneous liquid–liquid interface rather than the more commonly used average Gibbs interface. We provide a coarse-grained approach for the practical definition of the instantaneous interface and present numerical results for the prototypical water/1,2-dichloroethane system. These results show that the parallel components of the dielectric permittivity tensor can be accurately extracted. In contrast, the perpendicular component does not converge to the correct bulk value at large distances from the LLI, highlighting a flaw in the regularly applied coarse-graining procedure.     

Effect of temperature on the morphology of nanobubbles at mica/water interface

The great implication of nanobubbles at a solid/water interface has drawn wide attention of the scientific community and industries. However, the fundamental properties of nanobubbles remain unknown as yet. In this paper, the temperature effects on the morphology of nanobubbles at the mica/water interface are explored through the combination of AFM direct image with the temperature control. The results demonstrate that the apparent height of nanobubbles in AFM images is kept almost constant with the increase of temperature, whilst the lateral size of nanobubbles changes significantly. As the temperature increases from 28℃ to 42℃, the lateral size of nanobubbles increases, reaching a maximum at about 37℃, and then decreases at a higher temperature. The possible explanation for the size change of nanobubbles with temperature is suggested.     

Preparation of monodispersed Pd nanoparticles by laser ablation at air–suspension interface

Strontium titanate (SrTiO₃) has attracted a lot of attention because of its possible applications in new microelectronic devices. It is a material with a high dielectric constant, low leakage current, and some of its properties can be changed by adding or modifying the concentration of a dopant, which can be used for a wide range of functional purposes, from simple capacitors to complicated microwave devices. Therefore, in this work, we report the development of a new route to synthesize SrTiO₃ nanoparticles based on the solvothermal method by employing two precursor solutions: strontium chloride and titanium(IV) butoxide. Our route allows the production of cubic SrTiO₃ nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution. The particle sizes range between 8 and 24 nm, forming agglomerates of SrTiO₃ in the range of 128–229 nm. It was demonstrated that the Ti/Sr molar ratio employed into the precursor solution has an important effect onto the chemical composition of the resulting SrTiO₃ nanoparticles: when using Ti/Sr < 1, the formation and incorporation of the SrCO₃ compound into the nanoparticles was observed while with Ti/Sr ≥ 1 nanoparticles are free of contaminants. The as-prepared nanoparticles were characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution TEM, selected area electron diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and dynamic light scattering.     

Solid–liquid phase transition in a Gibbs monolayer of melissic acid at the n-hexane–water interface

A sharp phase transition from a crystalline state with the area per molecule A = (17 ± 1) Ų to a liquid state with A = (23 ± 1) Ų at the n-hexane–water interface in a Gibbs monolayer of melissic acid has been revealed in data of X-ray reflectometry with the use of synchrotron radiation.     

Harmonic generation at air–soil interface by femtosecond laser filament

We observe the third-harmonic generation and second-harmonic generation together with element fluorescence from the interaction of a femtosecond laser filament with a rough surface sample(sandy soil) in non-phasematched directions. The harmonics prove to originate from the phase-matched surface harmonics and air filament, then scatter in non-phase-matched directions due to the rough surface. These harmonics occurr when the sample is in the region before and after the laser filament, where the laser intensity is not high enough to excite the element fluorescence. The observed harmonics are related to the element spectroscopy, which will benefit the understanding of the interaction of the laser filament with a solid and be helpful for the application on filament induced breakdown spectroscopy.     

50 Gb/s PAM4 underwater wireless optical communication systems across the water–air–water interface [Invited]

A 50 Gb/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation(PAM4) underwater wireless optical communication(UWOC)system across the water–air–water interface is demonstrated in practice. In practical scenarios, laser beam misalignment due to oceanic turbulence degrades performance in UWOC systems. With the adoption of a reflective spatial light modulator(SLM) with an electrical controller, not only can the laser be arbitrarily adjusted to attain a water–air–water scenario, but oceanic engineering problems can also be resolved to establish a reliable UWOC link. Brilliant bit error rate performance and clear PAM4 eye diagrams are attained by adopting a Keplerian beam expander and a reflective SLM with an electrical controller. This proposed PAM4 UWOC system presents a feasible state that outperforms existing UWOC systems due to its feature providing a high-speed water–air–water link.     

Surface tension of hydrocarbon chains at the liquid–vapour interface

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed at constant temperature to obtain the surface tension of hydrocarbon chains at the liquid–vapour interface. The Ewald sum was used to calculate the dispersion forces of the Lennard–Jones potential to take into account the full interaction. The NERD and TraPPE_UA flexible force field models were used to simulate molecules from ethane to hexadecane along the coexistence curve. The simulation results for the TraPPE_UA model are in good agreement with experimental data, whereas the NERD model predicts slightly higher values.     

Dielectric or plasmonic Mie object at air–liquid interface: The transferred and the traveling momenta of photon

Considering the inhomogeneous or heterogeneous background, we have demonstrated that if the background and the half-immersed object are both non-absorbing, the transferred photon momentum to the pulled object can be considered as the one of Minkowski exactly at the interface. In contrast, the presence of loss inside matter, either in the half-immersed object or in the background, causes optical pushing of the object. Our analysis suggests that for half-immersed plasmonic or lossy dielectric, the transferred momentum of photon can mathematically be modeled as the type of Minkowski and also of Abraham. However, according to a final critical analysis, the idea of Abraham momentum transfer has been rejected. Hence,an obvious question arises: whence the Abraham momentum? It is demonstrated that though the transferred momentum to a half-immersed Mie object(lossy or lossless) can better be considered as the Minkowski momentum, Lorentz force analysis suggests that the momentum of a photon traveling through the continuous background, however, can be modeled as the type of Abraham. Finally, as an interesting sidewalk, a machine learning based system has been developed to predict the time-averaged force within a very short time avoiding time-consuming full wave simulation.     

Goos–Hänchen shifts of a light beam reflected from the interface of colloidal ferrofluids

Controllable Goos–Hänchen shift of a light beam reflected from the colloidal ferrofluids is investigated by using the stationary-phase method. It is found that the Goos–Hänchen shift can be easily controlled by the local H_e factor and the volume factor. Using this scheme, the peak value, the peak position and the width of the Goos–Hänchen shift can all be controlled by adjusting the external magnetic field for a fixed configuration, which also provides a possibility for obtaining larger negative Goos–Hänchen shift by changing the external controlling field. Our results have potential applications in optical devices.     

Infrared spectroscopy of solid mixed ammonia–water and acetylene–water aerosol particles

Mixed water aerosols are important components of planetary and lunar atmospheres. In this work, we use rapid-scan Fourier transform infrared (IR) spectroscopy to study solid ammonia–water and acetylene–water aerosol particles formed in a bath gas cooling cell at 78 K. With this set-up, we record time-dependent extinction spectra of particle ensembles in the mid-IR to monitor changes to the internal structure of the aerosol particles. Both ammonia–water and acetylene–water were found to form molecularly mixed structures. The mixing is observed by monitoring the profile for the ammonia ν₂ band and the acetylene ν₅ band, both of which are sensitive to particle properties. Depending on the injection conditions, the mixed particles form either immediately after sample injection or after a short mixing period of several tens of minutes. We confirm the formation of mixed particles by comparing the experimental spectra with spectra calculated with the vibrational exciton model.     

Behavior of an oppositely charged oil–water interface

Abstract  

This paper virtually presents induced behavior of an oppositely charged oil–water interface with the use of a high-speed camera. The elevation behavior of an oil–water interface is demonstrated experimentally, using a transparent acrylic cylindrical container (176 mm in inner diameter, 450 mm in height) with the bottom half (100 mm) filled with deionized water and the top half (between 50 and 150 mm) with an immiscible oil (viscosity 1 or 5 cSt). Copper fragments are inserted into each liquid (at top and bottom) to serve as electrodes, i.e., the oil layer is negatively charged, and the water layer is positively charged. A high-DC-voltage power supply provides potential difference of the order between about 1 and 30 kV. As a result, three kinds of behavior are observed, i.e.: (1) rotary motion on the interface in lower electric field supplied about E = 0.013 kV/mm; (2) fluctuation on the interface in medium electric field supplied about E = 0.021 kV/mm; (3) elevation of the interface in higher electric field supplied between E = 0.04 and 0.65 kV/mm (which depends on the depth of the oil layer).     

Electrophoretic mobility without charge driven by polarisation of the nanoparticle–water interface

Polarisation of the interface, spontaneously occurring when water is in contact with hydrophobic solutes or air, couples with the uniform external field to produce a non-zero force acting on a suspended particle. This force exists even in the absence of a net particle charge, and its direction is affected by the first-order, dipolar and the second-order, qudrupolar orientational order parameters of the interfacial water. The quadrupolar polarisation gives rise to an effectively negative charge. The corresponding surface charge density is inversely proportional to the area of the shear surface. As a result, the overall contribution from the quadrupolar polarisation to the particle mobility becomes negligible compared to experimentally reported values for particles exceeding a few nanometres in size. In contrast, the contribution of the dipolar order of the interface to the effective surface charge scales inversely with the particle size and dominates the zero-charge mobility of submicron particles. The corresponding electrokinetic charge is determined by the preferential orientation of interfacial dipoles relative to the surface normal.     

Optical surface polaritons of TM type at the nonlinear semiconductor–nanocomposite interface

TM-polarized optical surface polaritons in a nonlinear semiconductor–nanocomposite guiding structure have been considered. The nanocomposite consists of alternating layers of bismuth-containing garnet ferrite (BIG, Lu_{3 – x}Bi_xFe_{5 – y}Ga_yO₁₂) and gallium–gadolinium garnet (Gd₃Ga₅O₁₂), and the semiconductor (n-InSb) has a cubic nonlinearity and is characterized by two components of the nonlinear susceptibility tensor. With allowance for the anisotropy of the optical properties of the nanocomposite, caused by the magnetization of the BIG layers, the dispersion relation has been obtained and analyzed and its solutions are shown to split into two pairs of high- and low-frequency branches. The influence of the electric field at the interface on the wave characteristics and the existence domains of nonlinear surface TM polaritons has been studied. By solving the inverse problem of finding the profile of the longitudinal electric component of the surface polariton, it has been found that the nonlinearity gives rise to soliton-like wave fields.