Role of Mutual Diffusion in the Dissolution Behavior of One Primary Bulk Gas Nanobubble in Liquid: A Molecular Dynamics Study

YH Li and LW Zhang and BL Wang, LANGMUIR, 39, 7684-7693 (2023).

DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c00484

Dissolution of one primary bulk gas nanobubble in anundersaturatedliquid constitutes one of the underlying issues of the exceptionalstability of bulk gas nanobubble population. In this paper, the mutualdiffusion coefficient at the gas-liquid interface of one primarybulk gas nanobubble is investigated via all-atom molecular dynamicssimulation, and the applicability of the Epstein-Plesset theoryis verified. The mutual diffusion coefficient, different from theself-diffusion coefficient in bulk gas or bulk liquid, is essentiallydetermined by the chemical potential due to its driving role in themass transfer across the interface. We could ascribe the low-ratedissolution of one primary bulk gas nanobubble in an undersaturatedliquid to the slight attenuation of the mutual diffusion coefficientat the interface. The results show that the dissolution process ofone primary bulk gas nanobubble in an undersaturated liquid fundamentallyobeys the Epstein-Plesset theory and that the macroscopic dissolutionrate is intrinsically determined by the gas mutual diffusion coefficientat the interface rather than the self- diffusion coefficient in thebulk phase. The mass transfer viewpoint from the present study mightactively promote subsequent studies on the super- stability of bulkgas nanobubble population in liquid.

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