Here we report a simple microfluidics phenomenon which allows the efficient mass production of micron size gas bubbles with a perfectly monodisperse and controllable diameter. It resorts on a self-excited breakup phenomenon (which locks at a certain frequency) of a short gas microligament coflowing in a focused liquid stream. In this work, we describe the physics of the phenomenon and obtain closed expressions for the bubble diameter as a function of the liquid and gas properties, geometry, and flow parameters, from a large set of experimental results.

Making use of experimental and theoretical considerations, in this Letter we deduce a criterion to determine the critical velocity for which a drop impacting a smooth dry surface either spreads over the substrate or disintegrates into smaller droplets. The derived equation, which expresses the splash threshold velocity as a function of the material properties of the two fluids involved, the drop radius, and the mean free path of the molecules composing the surrounding gaseous atmosphere, has been thoroughly validated experimentally at normal atmospheric conditions using eight different liquids with viscosities ranging from μ=3×10(-4) to μ=10(-2)  Pa s, and interfacial tension coefficients varying between σ=17 and σ=72  mN m(-1). Our predictions are also in fair agreement with the measured critical speed of drops impacting in different gases at reduced pressures given by Xu et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 184505 (2005).

Here we provide a theoretical framework describing the generation of the fast jet ejected vertically out of a liquid when a bubble, resting on a liquid–gas interface, bursts. The self-consistent physical mechanism presented here explains the emergence of the liquid jet as a consequence of the collapse of the gas cavity driven by the low capillary pressures that appear suddenly around its base when the cap, the thin film separating the bubble from the ambient gas, pinches. The resulting pressure gradient deforms the bubble which, at the moment of jet ejection, adopts the shape of a truncated cone. The dynamics near the lower base of the cone, and thus the jet ejection process, is determined by the wavelength $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}^{\ast }$ of the smallest capillary wave created during the coalescence of the bubble with the atmosphere which is not attenuated by viscosity. The minimum radius at the lower base of the cone decreases, and hence the capillary suction and the associated radial velocities increase, with the wavelength $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}^{\ast }$. We show that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}^{\ast }$ increases with viscosity as $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}^{\ast }\propto Oh^{1/2}$ for $Oh\lesssim O(0.01)$, with $Oh=\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}/\sqrt{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}R\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}}$ the Ohnesorge number, $R$ the bubble radius and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$ indicating respectively the liquid density, viscosity and interfacial tension coefficient. The velocity of the extremely fast and thin jet can be calculated as the flow generated by a continuous line of sinks extending along the axis of symmetry a distance proportional to $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}^{\ast }$. We find that the jet velocity increases with the Ohnesorge number and reaches a maximum for $Oh=Oh_{c}$, the value for which the crest of the capillary wave reaches the vertex of the cone, and which depends on the Bond number $Bo=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}gR^{2}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}$. For $Oh>Oh_{c}$, the jet is ejected after a bubble is pinched off; in this regime, viscosity delays the formation of the jet, which is thereafter emitted at a velocity which is inversely proportional to the liquid viscosity.

Analytical considerations and potential-flow numerical simulations of the pinch-off of bubbles at high Reynolds numbers reveal that the bubble minimum radius, rn, decreases as tau proportional to r2n sqrt[1lnr2n], where tau is the time to break up, when the local shape of the bubble near the singularity is symmetric. However, if the gas convective terms in the momentum equation become of the order of those of the liquid, the bubble shape is no longer symmetric and the evolution of the neck changes to a rn proportional to tau1/3 power law. These findings are verified experimentally.

Cylindrical liquid jets are inherently unstable and eventually break into drops due to the Rayleigh-Plateau instability, characterized by the growth of disturbances that are either convective or absolute in nature. Convective instabilities grow in amplitude as they are swept along by the flow, while absolute instabilities are disturbances that grow at a fixed spatial location. Liquid jets are nearly always convectively unstable. Here we show that two-phase jets can breakup due to an absolute instability that depends on the capillary number of the outer liquid, provided the Weber number of the inner liquid is >O(1). We verify our experimental observations with a linear stability analysis.