ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on foams made from solutions of surfactants. It argues that specificities—at all the different length scales of foam—are associated with the use of such molecules as foam stabilizers. One generally obtains a drainage corresponding to the limit of high mobility for such single surfactant stabilized foams. The solubility in water of a molecule depends on its chemical structure. This is linked to how much this added molecule disturbs the local organization of the water molecules. In bulk, water molecules interact through hydrogen bonds, linking hydrogen atoms to the oxygen atoms of neighbor molecules. In parallel to the formation of micelles in bulk, amphiphiles can also adsorb to free interfaces to satisfy their ambivalent structure. Fluid flows induced by gradients of interfacial tension have received a great deal of attention and it is striking to encounter them in very different situations which might apparently share no common features.
