Temperature dependence of bubble nucleation limits for aqueous solutions of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen

We report the temperature variation of critical supersaturation for carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and oxygen in water at 1 atm pressure. The measurements were made by generating solutions of the gases chemically. Between 273 and 323 K, the bubble nucleation limit for carbon dioxide decreases from 0.4 to 0.2 M. For oxygen the limit decreases from 0.15 to 0.10 M inn the range 283-298 K. The limit for hydrogen increases from 0.03 M at 290 K to 0.08 M at 308 K. The trends correlate with the Lennard-Jones interaction energies of the molecules, in agreement with recently published bubble nucleation models based on density functional calculations. (C) 1999 Academic Press.