Acoustic Droplet Vaporization (ADV) is the phase-change process of superheated droplets into bubbles induced by ultrasound waves. The increase in liquid/vapor system volume together with the strong pressure and flow fields created by the rapid vaporization can be exploited in biomedical applications such as embolotherapy and targeted drug delivery.
In the effort to elucidate the underlying physics and to improve the precision and safety of ADV, we conduct experiments to characterize micron-sized perfluorocarbon droplet/bubble system dynamics by means of ultra-high-speed videomicroscopy and ultrasound imaging. We investigate droplet aggregations as a way to reduce the absolute negative pressure amplitude needed to achieve ADV compared to single droplets. The phenomenon discloses rich dynamics – from the nucleation of micro-cavitation in a specific droplet within the aggregation to the full vaporization of the droplets.
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