TY - JOUR
T1 - Squeezing alcohols into sonoluminescing bubbles
T2 - The universal role of surfactants
AU - Tögel, Rüdiger
AU - Hilgenfeldt, Sascha
AU - Lohse, Detlef
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - We conduct an experimental study of the dependence of single bubble sonoluminescence intensity on the concentration of various alcohols. The light intensity is reduced by one-half at a molar fraction of ethanol of ˜2.5×10-5 butanol achieves the same reduction at a concentration 10 times smaller. We account for the results by a theoretical model in which the alcohols are assumed to be mechanically forced into the bubble at collapse, modifying the adiabatic exponent of the gas. The increasing hydrophobicities of the alcohols lead to decreasing effective adiabatic exponents, and thus to less heating and therefore less light. Support for this model is obtained by replotting the experimental light intensity values vs the calculated exponents, yielding a collapse of all data onto a universal curve.
AB - We conduct an experimental study of the dependence of single bubble sonoluminescence intensity on the concentration of various alcohols. The light intensity is reduced by one-half at a molar fraction of ethanol of ˜2.5×10-5 butanol achieves the same reduction at a concentration 10 times smaller. We account for the results by a theoretical model in which the alcohols are assumed to be mechanically forced into the bubble at collapse, modifying the adiabatic exponent of the gas. The increasing hydrophobicities of the alcohols lead to decreasing effective adiabatic exponents, and thus to less heating and therefore less light. Support for this model is obtained by replotting the experimental light intensity values vs the calculated exponents, yielding a collapse of all data onto a universal curve.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2509
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.2509
M3 - Article
C2 - 11018922
AN - SCOPUS:0041802462
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 84
SP - 2509
EP - 2512
JO - Physical review letters
JF - Physical review letters
IS - 11
ER -