ABSTRACT

A. Introduction The maximum bubble pressure technique is a classical method in interfacial science. Due to the fast development of new technique and the great interest in experiments at very short adsorption times in recent years, efficient instruments were made commercially available for a large number of researchers. In 1851, more than 150 years ago, Simon [1] proposed the maximum bubble pressure method (MBPM) for measuring the surface tension of liquids. In recent reviews the various aspects of this method were discussed [2-8]. The historical development of the method was reviewed in detail by Mysels [4]. The physical processes taking place during the growth at and separation of a bubble from the tip of a capillary, the problems of measuring bubble pressure, lifetime and the so-called dead time were considered in many papers [7-29]. Theoretical considerations and experimental implementation become both complicated when the method is used for studies in the short time range, i.e., in the millisecond and sub-millisecond time range. However, this is exactly the time range which attracted recently the great attention to this methodology as it promises new important physico-chemical results. Using the MBPM, significant results have been obtained in many fields of application where dynamic surface tensions at short adsorption times are required, including industrial and biological applications [30-58].