Thermodynamics of the Contact Angle of a Sessile Bubble

Numerous experimental data are available on contact angles. However, the majority of them concern sessile droplets, although bubbles are more interesting from the point of view of colloid science, because a sessile bubble is distinguished by the existence of an equilibrium thin liquid film at a gas–solid interface. This paper presents the totality of modern thermodynamic equations necessary for describing the contact angle of a bubble of an arbitrary size. However, in view of their complexity, specific relationships are derived and analyzed for small although macroscopic bubbles. The dependences of a bubble contact angle on the temperature, pressure in a liquid, composition of a liquid phase, and roughness of a solid surface are considered. In the case of a pure liquid, when a gaseous phase consists of its vapor, the obtained relations are of significance for the cavitation theory. The study as a whole has a framework character, and so only the general basic results are presented. Their detailing is possible in combination with experimental data.