Kinetics of bubble collision and attachment to hydrophobic solids: I. Effect of surface roughness

Influence of surface roughness of the Teflon plates on kinetics of the bubble attachment was studied. Phenomena occurring during collisions of the air bubble, rising in clean water, with Teflon plates, differing only in their surface roughness, were recorded and analysed using a high-speed camera. Variations of the local velocity of the bubble during the collisions and the time of the bubble attachment were determined. It was found that the Teflon surface roughness was the parameter of a crucial importance for the attachment time of the colliding bubble. Depending on degree of the surface roughness the time of the attachment varied by over order of magnitude (from 3 to over 80 ms). In the case the Teflon surfaces having roughness below 1 μm there were recorded four to five “approach–bounce” cycles prior to the bubble attachment. Moreover, after the first collision the rapid pulsations of the bubble shape (within fraction of millisecond) were recorded. For surfaces of roughness ca. 50 μm and larger the attachment always occurred during the first collision—there was no bouncing observed and the time of the attachment was below 3 ms. It was documented that presence of a micro-bubble at the surface facilitated attachment of the colliding bubble.