Role of particle inertia in adsorption at fluid-liquid interfaces

It is shown that the inertia of a particle plays an important role in its motion in the direction normal to a fluid-liquid interface, and in determining its adsorption trajectory and orientation in the adsorbed state. Although the importance of inertia diminishes with decreasing particle size, on an air-water interface the inertia continues to be important even when the size is as small as a few nanometers. Furthermore, similar to an underdamped system, an adsorbed particle has characteristic linear and rotational frequencies that can be excited by an external forcing.