Marangoni flow of soluble amphiphiles

Matthieu Roché, Zhenzhen Li, Ian M. Griffiths, Sébastien Le Roux, Isabelle Cantat, Arnaud Saint-Jalmes, Howard A. Stone

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

Abstract

Surfactant distribution heterogeneities at a fluid-fluid interface trigger the Marangoni effect, i.e., a bulk flow due to a surface tension gradient. The influence of surfactant solubility in the bulk on these flows remains incompletely characterized. Here we study Marangoni flows sustained by injection of hydrosoluble surfactants at the air-water interface. We show that these flows have a finite size that increases with a decrease of the critical micelle concentration of the surfactants. We document the universality of the surface velocity field of these finite flows and predict scaling laws based on hydrodynamics and surfactant physical chemistry that capture the flow features.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number208302
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume112
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - May 20 2014

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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