Liquid Oil That Flows in Spaces of Aqueous Foam without Defoaming

A very interesting phenomenon has been observed in which foam formed from an aqueous fatty acid potassium salt solution spontaneously absorbs liquid oil immediately upon contact without defoaming. Although this phenomenon initially appeared to be based on capillary action, it was clarified that the liquid oil that flows in foam film did not wet the air/water interface. In this study, it is discussed why aqueous foam can spontaneously soak up liquid oil without defoaming using equilibrium surface tension, dynamic oil/water interfacial tension, and image analysis techniques. The penetration of oil was attributed both to the dynamic decrease in the surface tension at the oil/water interface and to Laplace pressure, depending on the curvature of the plateau border. Therefore, the foam does not absorb the oil, but the oil spontaneously penetrates the foam. This interesting behavior can be expected to be applied to aqueous detergents for liquid oil removal.