The well-known alcoholic beverage Pastis becomes turbid when mixed with water due to the poor solubility of trans-anethol, the anise-flavored component of Pastis in the water solution formed. This destabilization appears as the formation of micrometer-sized droplets that only very slowly grow in size, thus expanding the life of the anise-flavored beverage. The slow growth has been attributed to...

The properties of interfaces are discussed between coexisting phases in phase separated aqueous solutions of polymers. Such interfaces are found in food, where protein-rich and polysaccharide-rich phases coexist. Three aspects of such interfaces are highlighted: the interfacial profiles in terms of polymer composition and polymer concentration, the curvature dependence of the interfacial tensio...

We present measurements of equilibrium forces resulting from capillary condensation. The results give access to the ultralow interfacial tensions between the capillary bridge and the coexisting bulk phase. We demonstrate this with solutions of associative polymers and an aqueous mixture of gelatin and dextran, with interfacial tensions around 10 microN/m. The equilibrium nature of the capillary...

Dissolution of a solute molecule into a solvent necessitates the creation of a cavity devoid of solvent molecules. The cavity solvation free energy is exactly known at both very small and large length scales, but in between it can only be estimated by various approximations. Guided by simulation results for the solvation of small cavities and density functional theory, we analyze the size depen...

Molecular dynamics simulations are used to study capillary adhesion from a nanometer scale liquid bridge between two parallel flat solid surfaces. The capillary force, Fcap, and the meniscus shape of the bridge are computed as the separation between the solid surfaces, h, is varied. Macroscopic theory predicts the meniscus shape and the contribution of liquid/vapor interfacial tension to Fcap q...

We have used molecular dynamics simulations with coarse-grained and atomistic models to study the lateral pressure profiles in lipid monolayers. We first consider simple oillair and oil/water interfaces, and then proceed to lipid monolayers at air/water and oil/water interfaces. The results are qualitatively similar in both atomistic and coarse-grained models. The lateral pressure profile in a ...

The interfacial tension between immiscible liquids is studied as a function of a model linear surfactant length and concentration using coarse-grained, dissipative particle dynamics numerical simulations. The adsorption isotherms obtained from the simulations are found to be in agreement with Langmuir's model. The reduction of the interfacial tension with increasing surfactant concentration is ...

Mixtures of ideal polymers with hard spheres whose diameters are smaller than the radius of gyration of the polymer, exhibit extensive immiscibility. The interfacial tension between demixed phases of these mixtures is estimated, as is the barrier to nucleation. The barrier is found to scale linearly with the radius of the polymer, causing it to become large for large polymers. Thus for large po...

Light is able to remotely move matter. Among various driving forces, laser-induced metal sphere migration in glass has been reported. The temperature on the laser-illuminated side of the sphere was higher than that on the non-illuminated side. This temperature gradient caused non-uniformity in the interfacial tension between the glass and the melted metal as the tension decreased with increasin...

Gallium and mercury are employed as liquid phases in a nanoporous carbonbased energy absorption system. Owing to the large surface tensions, the nanopore surface is non-wettable. Pressure-induced infiltration is observed and defiltration is difficult. The energy absorption efficiency is much higher than that of previously investigated nanoporous silica-based systems. The nominal solid–liquid in...