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Solubility Enhanced Surfactant-Induced Flow in Air-Liquid-Air Sheets

Jun Eshima1,*, Tristan Aurégan1, Emmanuel Villermaux2,3, Howard A. Stone1,†, and Luc Deike1,4,‡

  • *Contact author: jeshima@princeton.edu
  • †Contact author: hastone@princeton.edu
  • ‡Contact author: ldeike@princeton.edu
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 144001 – Published 29 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/rbyz-h78n

Abstract

Liquid interfaces appear throughout nature and engineering and are typically contaminated by surface active agents (surfactants), which are characterized by a wide range of solubility. We demonstrate that solubility enhances by an order of magnitude surfactant-induced flow in air-liquid-air films, in contrast to previously studied geometries where solubility dampens the flow. The enhancement is described by a single parameter comparing the depletion length to the film thickness. Our experiments are well described by an asymptotic theory of the Navier-Stokes equations, including surfactant kinetics.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 144001– Published 29 September, 2026
  • Received 30 May 2026
  • Accepted 31 August 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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