Everlasting bubbles and liquid films resisting drainage, evaporation, and nuclei-induced bursting

Soap bubbles are by essence fragile and ephemeral. Depending on their composition and environment, bubble bursting can be triggered by gravity-induced drainage and/or the evaporation of the liquid and/or the presence of nuclei. They can also shrink due to the diffusion of the inner gas in the outside atmosphere induced by Laplace overpressure. In this Letter, we design bubbles made of a composite liquid film able to neutralize all these effects and keep their integrity for more than 1 year in a standard atmosphere. The unique properties of this composite film are rationalized with a nonlinear model and used to design complex objects.

Automated summary

We designed bubbles made of a composite liquid film that can neutralize various factors causing bubble bursting, allowing the bubbles to maintain their integrity for more than one year in a standard atmosphere.