Mechanism of Spontaneous Blebbing Motion of an Oil–Water Interface: Elastic Stress Generated by a Lamellar–Lamellar Transition
- Tokyo Univ. of Science, Tokyo (Japan)
- Inst. of Materials Structure Science, Ibaraki (Japan)
- National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States); Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)
- Aichi Univ., of Education, Aichi (Japan)
- Chiba Univ. (Japan)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
A quaternary system composed of surfactant, cosurfactant, oil, and water showing spontaneous motion of the oil-water interface-under far-from-equilibrium condition is studied in order to understand nanometer-scale structures and their roles in spontaneous motion. We characterize the interfacial motion by the repetitive. extension and retraction of spherical protrusions at the interface, i.e, blebbing motion. During, the, blebbing motion, elastic aggregates are accumulated, which were characterized as surfactant lamellar structures with mean repeat distances d of 25 to 40 nm. The relationship between the structure formation and, the dynamics of the interfacial motion is still unclear. In the present study, we find that a new lamellar structure with d larger than. 80 run is formed at. the blebbing oil-water interface,. while the resultant elastic aggregates, which are the one reported before, have a lamellar structure with smaller d (25 to 40 nm). Such transition of lamellar structures from the larger d to smaller d is induced by a penetration of surfactants from an aqueous phase into the aggregates. We propose a model in which elastic stress generated by the transition-drives the blebbing motion at the interface. These results explain the link between nanometer-scale transition of lamellar structure and millimeter-scale dynamics at an oil water interface.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1286992
- Journal Information:
- Langmuir, Vol. 32, Issue 12; ISSN 0743-7463
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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