Project description
A closer look at the emerging field of bulk nanobubbles
Minuscule gas bubbles are making big waves in various fields – from water treatment to biomedical engineering. But bulk nanobubbles (BNBs) remain a mystery as regards to their ability to remain stable for long periods in an aqueous solution. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) project NASCAP will establish a scientific basis for bulk nanobubbles research by providing conclusive answers to fundamental questions. It will also check the potential of nanobubbles for water/waste treatment and surface cleaning. In the long term, this project will contribute to the development of devices to remove particulate and non-polar contamination from surfaces.
Objective
"Bulk nanobubbles (i.e. bubbles with a sub-micrometer size) are believed to have a diverse range of potential applications in fields such as: waste treatment, cleaning and purification technologies, biomedicine, food processing, drag reduction, sonoreactors and sonocatalysis. However, rigorous scientific evidence on how bulk nanobubbles (BNBs) may remain stably in solution is to date not existent.
A number of methods for BNBs generation using mechanical, chemical or electrochemical approaches have been reported, but very few studies deal with confirming their gaseous nature. In nearly all research papers the size distribution of the BNBs is obtained from laser scattering, which can not discriminate bubbles form pollutant droplets or nanoparticles. That lead to considerable discussion on stabilized BNBs existence. Recently, we have shown that laser cavitation is a ''clean'' way to produce BNBs, while acoustic assisted bubble detection demonstrated the gaseous nature of the observed objects. That will constitute the main experimental strategy in the proposed project. The overall objective is to establish scientific basis for bulk nanobubbles research by providing conclusive answers to fundamental questions like: What is the underlying physical mechanics for which such small bubbles may remain stably suspended in liquids for long times?; and What is the potential of nanobubbles on water/waste treatment and surface cleaning?
The goal is not only of a purely academic nature, aiming also to lay the foundation of a sound scientific exploitation of the nanobubble technology in the long term. In the long term, this project will contribute to the development of devices to remove particulate and non-polar contamination from surfaces. Accordingly, ""real"" problems will be addressed by laboratory scale trials on bacterial removal from a hydraulic circuit with the components found in a typical water distribution network, under different flow regimes and BNBs concentrations."
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG-UN - HORIZON Unit GrantCoordinator
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia