Chinese Scientists Create Longest-Lasting Bubble on Earth, Setting Guinness World Record
Xi’an, China – A team of scientists at Northwestern Polytechnical University(NPU) has achieved a groundbreaking feat, creating the longest-lasting bubble on Earth, earning them a Guinness World Record. The bubble, suspended in asound field, remained stable for a remarkable 23 minutes and 36 seconds, defying gravity and defying the typical short lifespan of bubbles.
Led byProfessor Zang Duoyang from the College of Physics and Technology at NPU, the team’s achievement has significant implications for various fields, including materials engineering, fluid physics, life sciences, and environmental science. Bubbles, with their unique interfacial physicochemical properties anddynamic behavior, offer a distinctive platform for heat and mass transfer, as well as two-dimensional flexible constraints, making them highly valuable in diverse scientific applications.
However, the inherent fragility of bubbles, particularly their susceptibility to gravity, has always posed a challenge. The uneven thickness of the bubble film under gravity leads to rapid drainage and a short lifespan.
To overcome this limitation, researchers have traditionally employed surfactants or micro/nanoparticles as stabilizers to counteract gravity-induced drainage. However, these chemical stabilizers inevitably contaminate the bubbles, rendering them unsuitable forspecific applications.
Professor Zang’s team has ingeniously bypassed this limitation by utilizing acoustic levitation, a technique that uses sound waves to suspend objects in mid-air without physical contact. This method eliminates the need for chemical stabilizers, resulting in a clean and ultra-stable bubble.
The acoustic levitationtechnique allowed the team to create a bubble that remained intact even when pierced by a 0.8-millimeter hot copper needle, further demonstrating its remarkable stability.
This achievement opens up exciting possibilities for future research and applications, Professor Zang stated. We will continue to explore the surface characteristics, dynamics, andthermodynamic properties of acoustically levitated bubbles, providing theoretical support for their practical use in materials engineering, fluid physics, and life sciences.
The team’s success in creating the longest-lasting bubble on Earth marks a significant advancement in bubble research and paves the way for innovative applications in diverse scientific fields.
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