Communication: An extended model of liquid bridging

Recent phenomenological studies have drawn attention to an appealing effect, observed for the first time in 1893, today known as water-bridge. The phenomenon has been ascribed to unknown properties of water. We report some experimental results showing that, contrary to a widely common belief, the phenomenon is not to be related with water neither with a property of hydrogen bonded networks. Using a very simple model, we show that the liquid bridge phenomenon is originated by electrostatic effects and can be reproduced in any dense fluid with no respect of its peculiar molecular properties. This basic approach is able to reproduce many of the experimentally observed features of the bridge formation. In perspective of future investigations, the possible phenomena responsible of the bridge stability, after its formation, are briefly discussed. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3483690]