Water film squeezed between oil and solid: drainage towards stabilization by disjoining pressure

The spontaneous drainage of aqueous solutions of salt squeezed between an oil drop and a glass surface is studied experimentally. The thickness profile of the film is measured in space and time by reflection interference microscopy. As the film thins down, three regimes are identified: a capillary dominated regime, a mixed capillary and disjoining pressure regime, and a disjoining pressure dominated regime. These regimes are modeled within the lubrication approximation, and the role of the disjoining pressure is precisely investigated in the limit of thicknesses smaller than the range of electrostatic interactions. We derive simple analytical laws describing the drainage dynamics, thus providing tools to uncouple the effect of the film geometry from the effects of the disjoining or capillary pressures.