Immobilization of a bubble in water by nanoelectrolysis

TL;DR

This paper reports the unexpected immobilization of a water electrolysis bubble using nanoelectrodes and alternating electric potentials, explained by a nanoelectrolysis model involving nanolocalized gas production and exchange.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to immobilize bubbles in water using nanoelectrolysis and provides a theoretical model explaining this phenomenon.

Findings

Bubble immobilization achieved with nanoelectrodes and alternating potential.

The nanoelectrolysis model explains the bubble behavior.

Most observations are consistent with the proposed model.

Abstract

A surprising phenomenon is presented: a bubble, produced from water electrolysis, is immobilized in the liquid (as if the Archimedes' buoyant force were annihilated). This is achieved using a nanoelectrode (1 nm to 1 $\mu$m of curvature radius at the apex) and an alternating electric potential with adapted values of amplitude and frequency. A simple model based on "nanoelectrolysis" (i.e., nanolocalization of the production of H2 and O2 molecules at the apex of the nanoelectrode) and an "open bubble" (i.e., exchanging H2 and O2 molecules with the solution) explains most of the observations.