Black foam films from insoluble surfactant

Black spot formation discussed here was carried out with foam films from soluble surfactants. The formation of foam films, especially of black films, from insoluble monolayers is also interesting. This will be considered in the next Section. 

Formation of black foam films from an insoluble surfactant monola yer... 

In the method developed by Exerowa, Cohen and Nikolova [144] the insoluble (or slightly soluble) monolayers are obtained by adsorption from the gas phase. A special device (Fig. 2.28) was constructed for the purpose a ring a in the measuring cell of Scheludko and Exerowa for formation of microscopic foam films at constant capillary pressure (see Section 2.1.2.). The insoluble (or slightly soluble) substance from reversoir b is placed in this ring. Conditions for the adsorption of the surfactant on either surface of the bi-concave drop are created in the closed space of the measuring cell. The surfactant used was n-decanol which at temperatures lower than 10°C forms a condensed monolayer. Thus, it is possible to obtain common thin as well as black foam films. The results from these studies can be seen in Section 3.4.3.3. 

As mentioned above, the appearance of black spots (black films) is observed in films from soluble surfactants. It is believed that the solubility of these substances is a necessary condition for formation of black foam films. That is why it is interesting to produce black films, especially NBF, from insoluble (or poorly soluble) surfactant monolayers. Bilayer lipid films formed in aqueous medium from insoluble in organic phase surfactants have been studied largely [e.g. 390]. 

Data on emulsion film formation from insoluble surfactant monolayer are rather poor. It is known, however, that such films can be obtained when a bubble is blown at the surface of insoluble monolayers on an aqueous substrate [391,392]. Richter, Platikanov and Kretzschmar [393] have developed a technique for formation of black foam films which involves blowing a bubble at the interface of controlled monolayer (see Chapter 2). Experiments performed with monolayers from DL-Py-dipalmitoyl-lecithin on 510 3 mol dm 3 NaCl aqueous solution at 22°C gave two important results. Firstly, it was established that foam films, including black films, with a sufficiently long lifetime, formed only when the monolayer of lecithin molecules had penetrated into the bubble surface as well, i.e. there are monolayers at both film surfaces on the contrary a monolayer, however dense, formed only at one of the film surfaces could not stabilize it alone and the film ruptured at the instant of its formation. Secondly, relatively stable black films formed at rather high surface pressures of the monolayer at area less than 53A2 per molecule, i.e. the monolayer should be close-packed, which corresponds to the situation in black films stabilized with soluble surfactants. 

---