Gravitational Drainage of Foam Films

Gravitational drainage from thick plane vertical soap films and hemispherical bubbles is studied experimentally and theoretically. The experiments involve microinterferometry kindred to the one used in the experiments in the Scheludko cell. The following surfactants were used in the experiments: cationic dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (DTAB), anionic sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), anionic Pantene shampoo which primarily contains sodium lauryl sulfate, nonionic tetraethylene glycol monooctyl ether (C8E4), and nonionic Pluronic (P-123) surfactants at different concentrations. The theoretical results explain the drainage mechanism and are used to develop a new method of measurement of the surface elasticity and to test it on the above-mentioned surfactants.