ABSTRACT
The strength of the contacts between small glass spheres and the surface of a quartz crystal resonator has been probed based on the increase of resonance frequency induced upon sphere contact. The acoustic interaction between the sphere and the plate is modeled as a low-frequency coupled resonance; the dependence of the resonant parameters on overtone order lends support to this model. After exposing the sample to humid air and drying it again, the contact strength increases at least tenfold due to capillary forces--we observe a hysteretic form of the sand-castle effect. Repeated wet-dry cycles reveal logarithmic capillary aging with time. The experiments suggest that the drying of the liquid bridges leads to a contraction of small voids in the contact zone, subsequently increasing cohesion.
ABSTRACT
The nature of hexaethylene glycol mono-n-tetradecyl ether (C(14)EO(6)) layers adsorbed onto different model surfaces was systematically investigated by means of QCM-D (quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation) and ellipsometry. The amount of non-ionic surfactant adsorbed is determined both at hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces. In particular, the substrates employed were hydrophilic silica, hydrophobized silica (using dimethyldichlorosilane), and hydrophobized gold surfaces (using 10-thiodecane and 16-thiohexadecane). It was shown that the frequency shift obtained from the QCM-D experiments results in an overestimation of the adsorbed mass. This is attributed to two different effects, viz. water that is coupled to the adsorbed layer due to hydration of the polar region of the surfactant and second water that for other reasons is trapped within the adsorbed layer. Furthermore, from the ellipsometry data the adsorbed layer thickness is determined. By combining the thickness information and the dissipation parameter (obtained from the QCM-D experiments), we note that the dissipation parameter is insufficient in describing the viscoelastic character of thin surfactant films.
ABSTRACT
The adsorption from phospholipid liposome solutions (1.2%) and phospholipid stabilized oil-in-water emulsions (20% purified soybean oil) with the same phospholipid liposome concentration, has been followed by means of a quartz crystal microbalance allowing the simultaneous determination of changes in resonance frequency and energy dissipation. Both the fundamental resonance frequency and the third overtone were used for following the interfacial processes. The adsorption from the liposome solution resulted in formation of a phospholipid bilayer with an additional and incomplete outer layer of liposomes. The outer layer was removed by dilution leaving a bilayer of phospholipids on the surface. The adsorption process observed from the concentrated emulsion solution was considerably more complex. A slow spreading process that also resulted in some expulsion of material from the interface followed the rapid initial adsorption of emulsion droplets. After rinsing with water a phospholipid bilayer was retained on the surface.
