Bursting of soap films

Abstract

Soap films consist of thin films of water in between two monolayers of amphiphilic molecules. Newton black films (NBFs) are the thinnest possible soap films. We have developed a microscopic model of NBFs; this model is a variant of the Widom model for microemulsions. By carrying out Monte Carlo simulations of this model, we have investigated the dependence of the lifetime of the NBFs on (a) the initial concentration of the amphiphilic molecules, (b) the temperature and (c) the bending rigidity of the constituent amphiphilic monolayers. We compare our results with the corresponding experimental observations and suggest further specific experiments. We establish that the "edge energy" of the model bilayer tends to stabilize the NBF; a similar mechanism leads to the well known phenomenon of "self-healing" of small enough holes in pierced vesicles. We also review the laws of growth of holes in soap films during rupture. Finally, we speculate on some other possible applications of our ideas.