Removal of induced nanobubbles from water/graphite interfaces by partial degassing

Nanobubbles at an interface between a hydrophobic solid and water have a wide range of implications, but the evidence for their existence is still being debated. Here we artificially induced nanobubbles on freshly cleaved HOPG substrates in water using the protocol developed previously and subjected the system to moderate levels of degassing (similar to 0.1 atm for 0.5 to 3 h). The AFM images after the partial degassing revealed that some nanobubbles had coalesced and detached from the substrate because of buoyancy, whereas others apparently remained unaffected. The size and spatial distributions of the nanobubbles after the partial degassing suggest that there is a critical size for a nanobubble above which it may grow. The contact angle of water next to nanobubbles (similar to 160 degrees) is much larger than the advancing contact angle of a macroscopic water droplet on the same substrate (similar to 80 degrees) both before and after the partial degassing and concomitant growth and shrinkage of the nanobubbles. The contact angle of a nanobubble also remained unchanged as the nanobubble was moved along the substrate by the AFM tip. The apparent lack of contact angle hysteresis in the nanobubble systems may suggest that the very large contact angle may correspond to a local minimum of the free-energy landscape.