Life beyond Fritz: On the Detachment of Electrolytic Bubbles

Çayan Demirkır, Jeffery A. Wood, Detlef Lohse, Dominik Krug*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
60 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

We present an experimental study on detachment characteristics of hydrogen bubbles during electrolysis. Using a transparent (Pt or Ni) electrode enables us to directly observe the bubble contact line and bubble size. Based on these quantities we determine other parameters such as the contact angle and volume through solutions of the Young-Laplace equation. We observe bubbles without (“pinned bubbles”) and with (“spreading bubbles”) contact line spreading and find that the latter mode becomes more prevalent if the concentration of HClO4 is ≥0.1 M. The departure radius for spreading bubbles is found to drastically exceed the value predicted by the well-known formula of W. Fritz [Phys. Z. 1935, 36, 379-384] for this case. We show that this is related to the contact line hysteresis, which leads to pinning of the contact line after an initial spreading phase at the receding contact angle. The departure mode is then similar to a pinned bubble and occurs once the contact angle reaches the advancing contact angle of the surface. A prediction for the departure radius based on these findings is found to be consistent with the experimental data.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)20474-20484
Number of pages11
JournalLangmuir
Volume40
Issue number39
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2024

Keywords

  • UT-Hybrid-D

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