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Intrusion and extrusion of water in hydrophobic mesopores

Jean-Louis Barrat·Benoit Lefevre·Lyderic Bocquet·Antony Saugey·Gerard Vigier·Pierre-Francois Gobin·Elisabeth Charlaix
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Abstract

We present experimental and theoretical results on intrusion-extrusion cycles of water in hydrophobic mesoporous materials, characterized by independent cylindrical pores. The intrusion, which takes place above the bulk saturation pressure, can be well described using a macroscopic capillary model. Once the material is saturated with water, extrusion takes place upon reduction of the externally applied pressure; Our results for the extrusion pressure can only be understood by assuming that the limiting extrusion mechanism is the nucleation of a vapour bubble inside the pores. A comparison of calculated and experimental nucleation pressures shows that a proper inclusion of line tension effects is necessary to account for the observed values of nucleation barriers. Negative line tensions of order $10^{-11} \mathrm{J.m}^{-1}$ are found for our system, in reasonable agreement with other experimental estimates of this quantity.

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Jean-Louis Barrat, Benoit Lefevre, Lyderic Bocquet, Antony Saugey, Gerard Vigier, Pierre-Francois Gobin, Elisabeth Charlaix. 2003-09-03. Intrusion and extrusion of water in hydrophobic mesopores. https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0309077

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