Evaporation-induced foam stabilization in lubricating oils

Foaming in liquids is ubiquitous in nature. Whereas the mechanism of foaming in aqueous systems has been thoroughly studied, nonaqueous systems have not enjoyed the same level of examination. Here we study the mechanism of foaming in a widely used class of nonaqueous liquids: lubricant base oils. Using a newly developed experimental technique, we show that the stability of lubricant foams can be evaluated at the level of single bubbles. The results obtained with this single-bubble technique indicate that solutocapillary flows are central to lubricant foam stabilization. These solutocapillary flows are shown to originate from the differential evaporation of multicomponent lubricants—an unexpected result given the low volatility of nonaqueous liquids. Further, we show that mixing of some combinations of different lubricant base oils, a common practice in the industry, exacerbates solutocapillary flows and hence leads to increased foaming.