On the identification of liquid surface properties using liquid bridges

Abstract

The term liquid bridge refers to the specific silhouette of a liquid volume when it is placed between two solid surfaces. Liquid bridges have been studied extensively both theoretically and experimentally during the last century due to their significance in many technological applications. It is worth noticing that even today new technological applications based on liquid bridges continue to appear. A liquid bridge has a well-defined surface configuration dictated by a rigid theoretical foundation so the potential of its utilization as a tool to study surface properties of liquids is apparent. However, it is very scarce in literature that the use of liquid bridges is suggested as an alternative to the well-established drop techniques (pendant/sessile drop). The present work (i) presents the theoretical background for setting up a liquid-bridge based surface property estimation problem, (ii) describes the required experimental equipment and procedures and (iii) performs a thorough literature review on the subject. A case with particular interest is that of liquid bridges made of electrically conducting liquids forming between two conducting solids; such a liquid bridge presents an integral electrical conductance value which is sensitive to the specific silhouette of the bridge. This enables the use of this integral conductance as shape descriptor instead of the conventional image processing techniques. Several attempts in literature for the estimation of liquid surface tension, liquid-solid contact angle and surfactant induced surface elasticity for conducting or non/conducting liquids are presented and the prospects of the technique are discussed.

Keywords: Gibbs elasticity; Liquid bridge; Marangoni convection; Surface tension; Surfactants; Thin film.