TY - JOUR A1 - Belova, Valentina A1 - Shchukin, Dmitry G. A1 - Gorin, Dmitry A. A1 - Kopyshev, Alexey A1 - Moehwald, Helmuth T1 - A new approach to nucleation of cavitation bubbles at chemically modified surfaces JF - Physical chemistry, chemical physics : a journal of European Chemical Societies N2 - Cavitation at the solid surface normally begins with nucleation, in which defects or assembled molecules located at a liquid-solid interface act as nucleation centers and are actively involved in the evolution of cavitation bubbles. Here, we propose a simple approach to evaluate the behavior of cavitation bubbles formed under high intensity ultrasound (20 kHz, 51.3 W cm (2)) at solid surfaces, based on sonication of patterned substrates with a small roughness (less than 3 nm) and controllable surface energy. A mixture of octadecylphosphonic acid (ODTA) and octadecanethiol (ODT) was stamped on the Si wafer coated with different thicknesses of an aluminium layer (20-500 nm). We investigated the growth mechanism of cavitation bubble nuclei and the evolution of individual pits (defects) formed under sonication on the modified surface. A new activation behavior as a function of Al thickness, sonication time, ultrasonic power and temperature is reported. In this process cooperativity is introduced, as initially formed pits further reduce the energy to form bubbles. Furthermore, cavitation on the patterns is a controllable process, where up to 40-50 min of sonication time only the hydrophobic areas are active nucleation sites. This study provides a convincing proof of our theoretical approach on nucleation. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1039/c1cp20218a SN - 1463-9076 VL - 13 IS - 17 SP - 8015 EP - 8023 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Haase, Martin F. A1 - Grigoriev, Dmitry A1 - Moehwald, Helmuth A1 - Tiersch, Brigitte A1 - Shchukin, Dmitry G. T1 - Nanoparticle modification by weak polyelectrolytes for pH-sensitive pickering emulsions JF - Langmuir N2 - The affinity of weak polyelectrolyte coated oxide particles to the oil-water interface can be controlled by the degree of dissociation and the thickness of the weak polyelectrolyte layer. Thereby the oil in water (o/w) emulsification ability of the particles can be enabled. We selected the weak polyacid poly(methacrylic acid sodium salt) and the weak polybase poly(allylamine hydrochloride) for the surface modification of oppositely charged alumina and silica colloids, respectively. The isoelectric point and the pH range of colloidal stability of both particle-polyelectrolyte composites depend on the thickness of the weak polyelectrolyte layer. The pH-dependent wettability of a weak polyelectrolyte-coated oxide surface is characterized by contact angle measurements. The o/w emulsification properties of both particles for the nonpolar oil dodecane and the more polar oil diethylphthalate are investigated by measurements of the droplet size distributions. Highly stable emulsions can be obtained when the degree of dissociation of the weak polyelectrolyte is below 80%. Here the average droplet size depends on the degree of dissociation, and a minimum can be found when 15 to 45% of the monomer units are dissociated. The thickness of the adsorbed polyelectrolyte layer strongly influences the droplet size of dodecane/water emulsion droplets but has a less pronounced impact on the diethylphthalate/water droplets. We explain the dependency of the droplet size on the emulsion pH value and the polyelectrolyte coating thickness with arguments based on the particle-wetting properties, the particle aggregation state, and the oil phase polarity. Cryo-SEM visualization shows that the regularity of the densely packed particles on the oil-water interface correlates with the degree of dissociation of the corresponding polyelectrolyte. Y1 - 2011 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/la1027724 SN - 0743-7463 VL - 27 IS - 1 SP - 74 EP - 82 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER -