School of Chemistry F11, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
Langmuir 12 , 1693-1695 (1996)
Abstract
The thermodynamic stability of bubbles and bridging vapor cavities
is re-analyzed.
It is shown that bubbles are stable in the isobaric ensemble,
and that a bubble stuck to a surface, particularly a hydrophobic surface,
has a lower Gibbs free energy than when in bulk water.
It is also pointed out that vapor cavities
bridging between two hydrophobic surfaces have a local grand potential
minimum at sub-microscopic radii,
and are therefore mechanically stable
even though the contact angle is greater than the bulk one.
It is concluded that bubbles or cavities bridging between
two hydrophobic surfaces are a viable possibility
for the long range attractions that have been measured.
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