COMMENT ON DEFORMATION OF FLUID INTERFACES UNDER DOUBLE-LAYER FORCES STABILIZES BUBBLE DISPERSIONS - REPLY

This paper is in reply to a criticism of a recently proposed explanati on for bubble coalescence inhibition by electrolytes. We argue that th e proposed deformation mechanism, demonstrably represented using class ical Dejaguin-Landau-Venvey-Overbeek interaction potential (DLVO) theo ry [Phys. Rev. E 54, 6551 (1996)] is more generally valid than suggest ed by the mean-field DLVO approximation. We argue that repulsive steri c (hard-core) and polarization (image charge) effects are significant at high concentrations and will lead to bubble interfacial deformation . This, in turn, will influence bubble-bubble interactions giving rise to bubble dispersion behavior consistent with observations.