The influence of salt concentration on the dissolution of microbubbles in bulk aqueous electrolyte solutions

Abstract

We study microbubbles (MBs) in aqueous electrolyte solutions and show that increasing the salt concentration slows down the kinetics of MB dissolution. We modified the Epstein–Plesset theory and experimented with NaCl aqueous solutions to estimate the MB effective surface charge and to compare it with predictions from the modified Poisson–Boltzmann theory. Our results reveal a mechanism responsible for the change in the dissolution of MBs in aqueous electrolyte solutions, with implications for emerging fields ranging from physics of solutions to soft and biological matter.