Behaviour of polymer-coated composite nanoparticles at bubble-stabilizing interfaces during bubble coarsening and accelerated coalescence: A Cryo-SEM study

Kai Yu; Liuhao Chen; Weifeng Zhang; Huagui Zhang; Jianguang Jia; Zhentao Wang; Bin Li; Wei Zhang; Haojie Xu; Lei Zuo; Junfeng Wang; Jianming Pan; David Harbottle

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.100

Behaviour of polymer-coated composite nanoparticles at bubble-stabilizing interfaces during bubble coarsening and accelerated coalescence: A Cryo-SEM study

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Mar:633:113-119. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.100. Epub 2022 Nov 24.

Authors

Kai Yu¹, Liuhao Chen², Weifeng Zhang², Huagui Zhang³, Jianguang Jia², Zhentao Wang², Bin Li⁴, Wei Zhang², Haojie Xu², Lei Zuo², Junfeng Wang², Jianming Pan⁵, David Harbottle⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. Electronic address: victoryu66@ujs.edu.cn.
² School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
³ College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Fujian Key Laboratory of Polymer Science, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou 350007, China.
⁴ School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China. Electronic address: binli@ujs.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
⁶ School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds, U.K.

PMID: 36436345
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2022.11.100

Abstract

Hypothesis: Dynamics of polymer-coated silica composite nanoparticles (CPs) during bubble coarsening is highly dominated by the behaviour of the polymer layer, while in-situ particle aggregation would lead to accelerated bubble coalescence.

Experiments: CPs-stabilized foams were prepared in 0.1 M and 0.55 M Na₂SO₄ solution, referring to the 0.1 M and 0.55 M foam/bubble respectively. The 0.1 M to 0.55 M transition foam was also prepared. High resolution Cryo-SEM was originally used to investigate the CPs behaviour at the bubble-stabilizing interface during bubble coarsening and accelerated coalescence.

Findings: The 0.1 M bubble-stabilizing interface buckles in uniaxial compression due to coarsening, with the CPs being observed to desorb from the interface. While the CPs were visualized to rearrange into crumpled particle multi-layers surrounding the shrinking 0.55 M bubbles, due to the adhesion between interpenetrating polymer chains and the unique lubrication effect of the PVP layers. The 0.1 M to 0.55 M transition foaming behaviour was also studied. Cracks and voids were observed at interfaces surrounding the transition bubbles driven by in-situ particle aggregation, resulting in accelerated bubble coalescence during the transition process.

Keywords: Cryo-SEM; Particle rearrangement; Particle-laden interfaces; Polymer-coated particles.