Capillary pressure studies under low gravity conditions

For the understanding of short-time adsorption phenomena and high-frequency relaxations at liquid interfaces particular experimental techniques are needed. The most suitable method for respective studies is the capillary pressure tensiometry. However, under gravity conditions there are rather strong limitations, in particular due to convections and interfacial deformations. This manuscript provides an overview of the state of the art of experimental tools developed for short-time and high-frequency investigations of liquid drops and bubbles under microgravity. Besides the brief description of instruments, the underlying theoretical basis will be presented and limits of the applied methods under ground and microgravity conditions will be discussed. The results on the role of surfactants under highly dynamic conditions will be demonstrated by some selected examples studied in two space shuttle missions on Discovery in 1998 and Columbia in 2003.