Tiny Bubbles

Extract

This is not an article about the song made famous by the late (great) Don Ho. This is about a breakthrough in the understanding of how micrometer-sized bubbles can be stabilized for long periods of time. This can influence the taste, smell, and consistency of consumer products including food and cosmetics.

In two-phase systems, which can include air (as bubbles) suspended within a liquid, the structures of the dispersed (bubbles) and continuous (liquid) phases play a critical role in determining the properties of the material. There is also the function of time in that the microstructure of the dispersed phase continuously evolves toward a state of lower energy by minimizing the surface area between the two phases (referred to as the interfacial area). In the long term, this time evolution diminishes the usefulness of two-phase systems. Emilie Dressaire, Rodney Bee, David Bell, Alex Lips, and Howard Stone have devised a way to stabilize a two-phase system for time periods of a year or longer.