Theory of gas bubbles around heated nanoparticles

Abstract

Vapor generation by hot nanoparticles in liquid has attracted recent interest and different experiments have been performed to study it. Although equilibrium systems are properly understood, these non-equilibrium fluids with temperature gradients remain theoretically poorly explored. This thesis introduces the required theory to describe such systems and gives a thermodynamical analysis of the dynamics that are involved. Different systems are simulated, corresponding to different experiments, and their results are presented and discussed. Interestingly, although these fluids are not in equilibrium, it turns out that on a picosecond timescale one can still define their thermodynamic state.