Plasma-liquid interactions represent a growing interdisciplinary area of research involving plasma science, fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, photolysis, multiphase chemistry and aerosol science. This review provides an assessment of the state-of-the-art of this multidisciplinary area and identifies the key research challenges. The developments in diagnostics, modeling and further extensions of cross section and reaction rate databases that are necessary to address these challenges are discussed. The review focusses on nonequilibrium plasmas.

A model of single-bubble sonoluminescence ͑SBSL͒ is constructed. In the model, the temperature is assumed to be spatially uniform inside the bubble except at the thermal boundary layer near the bubble wall even at the strong collapse based on the theoretical results of Kwak and Na ͓Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 4454 ͑1996͔͒. In the model, the effect of the kinetic energy of gases inside the bubble is taken into account, which heats up the whole bubble when gases stop their motions at the end of the strong collapse. In the model, a bubble in water containing air is assumed to consist mainly of argon based on the hypothesis of Lohse et al. ͓Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 1359 ͑1997͔͒. Numerical calculations under a SBSL condition reveal that the kinetic energy of gases heats up the whole bubble considerably. It is also clarified that vapor molecules (H 2 O) undergo chemical reactions in the heated interior of the bubble at the collapse and that chemical reactions decrease the temperature inside the bubble considerably. It is suggested that SBSL originates in thermal radiation from the whole bubble rather than a local point ͑the bubble center͒ heated by a converging spherical shock wave widely suggested in the previous theories of SBSL. ͓S1063-651X͑97͒04612-6͔ PACS number͑s͒: 78.60.Mq, 47.55.Bx

Numerical simulations of bubble oscillations in liquid water irradiated by an ultrasonic wave are performed under the experimental condition for single-bubble sonochemistry reported by Didenko and Suslick [Nature (London) 418, 394 (2002)]. The calculated number of OH radicals dissolving into the surrounding liquid from the interior of the bubble agrees sufficiently with the experimental data. OH radicals created inside a bubble at the end of the bubble collapse gradually dissolve into the surrounding liquid during the contraction phase of an ultrasonic wave although about 30% of the total amount of OH radicals that dissolve into the liquid in one acoustic cycle dissolve in 0.1 micros at around the end of the collapse. The calculated results have indicated that the oxidant produced by a bubble is not only OH radical but also O atom and H2O2. It is suggested that an appreciable amount of O atom is produced by bubbles inside a standing-wave-type sonochemical reactor filled with water in which oxygen is dissolved as in the case of air.

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Numerical simulations of nonequilibrium chemical reactions inside an air bubble in liquid water irradiated by ultrasound have been performed for various ambient bubble radii. The intensity of sonoluminescence (SL) has also been calculated taking into account electron-atom bremsstrahlung, radiative attachment of electrons to neutral molecules, radiative recombination of electrons and ions, chemiluminescence of OH, molecular emission from nitrogen, etc. The lower bound of ambient radius for an active bubble in SL and sonochemical reactions nearly coincides with the Blake threshold for transient cavitation. The upper bound is in the same order of magnitude as that of the linear resonance radius. In actual experiments, however, the distribution of ambient radius for active bubbles may be narrow at around the threshold ambient radius for the shape instability. The threshold peak temperature inside an air bubble for nitrogen burning is higher than that for oxidant formation. The threshold peak temperatures depend on ultrasonic frequency and acoustic amplitude because chemical reactions inside a bubble are in nonequilibrium. The dominant emission mechanism in SL is electron-atom bremsstrahlung except at a lower bubble temperature than 2000 K, for which molecular emissions may be dominant.