Interaction of Calcium Carbonate with Nanobubbles Produced in an Alternating Magnetic Field

Nanobubbles have been widely studied for their use in water treatments. Conventional methods for producing nanobubbles require significantly high levels of electric power. A system that involves inducing an alternative magnetic field (AMF) in flowing water has been developed, which has relatively low power requirements compared to other methods. Experimental results are presented that indicate nanobubbles are generated by this AMF system. These results include ζ potential measurements in deionized water, light scattering observations, and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) measurements of object size and relative scattering intensity for water containing 5 × 10–4 M CaCO3. The NTA results also suggest the formation of nanobubble–nanoparticle clusters. Finally, an earlier work is reviewed which demonstrated that this AMF treatment led to the removal of tubercles on the inner walls of pipe samples. This prior result is discussed in light of the present evidence of nanobubble formation and a hypothesis is proposed based on the dissolution of CaCO3 as a result of nanobubble–nanoparticle clustering.