Modeling surface nanobubbles in water electrolysis

Abstract

In this project a steady state approach is used to study the stability of surface nanobubbles in water electrolysis. A two dimensional domain is considered, where an electrode of length 100 nm is partly covered by a bubble. The results indicates that a single nanobubble which partially covers the electrode can be stable, as long as the electrogeneration of hydrogen is suffcient to balance the dissolution of hydrogen at near the cap of the bubble. The effect of the evaporation rate constant on the stability of the bubble is investigated, and the results indicates that as evaporation rate constant is increased from 0.01 m/s to a 100 m/s the needed production of hydrogen for a given bubble to be stable decreases. For values outside this range the needed production of hydrogen in converges to a constant value depending on the geometry of the bubble.