Graphene microbubbles make perfect lenses

Tiny bubbles can solve large problems. Microbubbles—around 1-50 micrometers in diameter—have widespread applications. They're used for drug delivery, membrane cleaning, biofilm control, and water treatment. They've been ...

Record-shattering underwater sound

A team of researchers has produced a record-shattering underwater sound with an intensity that eclipses that of a rocket launch. The intensity was equivalent to directing the electrical power of an entire city onto a single ...

Bright water proposal to cut global warming

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Harvard physicist has proposed the Earth could be cooled by pumping vast numbers of tiny bubbles into the sea to lower ocean temperatures and increase the water’s reflectivity. The same strategy could ...

Clot-dissolving bubbles to treat strokes?

(Medical Xpress)—Researchers are using computer simulations to investigate how ultrasound and tiny bubbles injected into the bloodstream might break up blood clots, limiting the damage caused by a stroke in its first hours.

University of Utah microbubbles clean dirty soil in China

Microbubbles are much bigger than they sound. If all goes as planned during a demonstration project in eastern China, microbubble technology developed at the University of Utah has the potential to boost a wide range of environmental ...

Popping microbubbles help focus light inside the body

A new technique developed at Caltech that uses gas-filled microbubbles for focusing light inside tissue could one day provide doctors with a minimally invasive way of destroying tumors with lasers, and lead to improved diagnostic ...

page 1 from 2

Microbubbles

Microbubbles are bubbles smaller than one millimetre in diameter, but larger than one micrometre. They are used in medical diagnostics as a contrast agent for ultrasound imaging. The gas-filled, e.g. air or perfluorocarbon, microbubbles oscillate and vibrate when a sonic energy field is applied and may reflect ultrasound waves. This distinguishes the microbubbles from surrounding tissues. In practice, because gas bubbles in liquid lack stability and would therefore quickly dissolve, microbubbles must be encapsulated with a solid shell. The shell is made from either a lipid or a protein such as Optison microbubbles which consist of perfluoropropane gas encapsulated by a serum albumin shell.

Microbubbles may also be used for drug delivery and water/waste water treatment purposes. .

This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA