Marangoni-driven spreading along liquid-liquid interfaces

Marangoni-driven spreading at gas-liquid interfaces has been studied extensively over the past years but so far the spreading kinetics along the interface between immiscible liquids has not been investigated systematically. In this study, the spreading kinetics of aqueous solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate and dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide along the interface between thick layers of water and decane has been investigated by means of two different optical visualization techniques (dye tracer and laser shadowgraphy). The spreading kinetics follows a power law where the radius r as function of time t scales as r(t)∝t3/4 indicating large similarities with Marangoni-driven spreading at air-liquid interfaces. The existing scaling law for spreading at air-liquid interfaces is based on the balance between an interfacial tension gradient and the viscous stress in the fluid layers beneath the interface. When the viscous dissipation in the two boundary layers below and above the interface is factored into the scaling law, quantitative agreement with experimental data is obtained. Marangoni-driven spreading along an interface is a fast transport mechanism. The velocity of the leading edge lies within the range of group velocities of capillary waves.