Diffusion across particle-laden interfaces in Pickering droplets.

Emulsions stabilized by nanoparticles, known as Pickering emulsions, exhibit remarkable stability, which enables applications ranging from encapsulation, to advanced materials, to chemical conversion. The layer of nanoparticles at the interface of Pickering droplets is a semi-permeable barrier between the two liquid phases, which can affect the rate of release of encapsulates, and the interfacial transfer of reactants and products in biphasic chemical conversion. A gap in our fundamental understanding of diffusion in multiphase systems with particle-laden interfaces currently limits the optimal development of these applications. To address this gap, we developed an experimental approach for in situ, real-time quantification of concentration fields in Pickering droplets in a Hele-Shaw geometry and investigated the effect of the layer of nanoparticles on diffusion of solute across a liquid-liquid interface. The experiments did not reveal a significant hindrance on the diffusion of solute across an interface densely covered by nanoparticles. We interpret this result using an unsteady diffusion model to predict the spatio-temporal evolution of the concentration of solute with a particle-laden interface. We find that the concentration field is only affected in the immediate vicinity of the layer of particles, where the area available for diffusion is affected by the particles. This defines a characteristic time scale for the problem, which is the time for diffusion across the layer of particles. The far-field concentration profile evolves towards that of a bare interface. This localized effect of the particle hindrance is not measurable in our experiments, which take place over a much longer time scale. Our model also predicts that the hindrance by particles can be more pronounced depending on the particle size and physicochemical properties of the liquids and can ultimately affect performance in applications.

Acoustic trapping of microbubbles in complex environments and controlled payload release.

Contactless manipulation of microparticles using acoustic waves holds promise for applications ranging from cell sorting to three-dimensional (3D) printing and tissue engineering. However, the unique potential of acoustic trapping to be applied in biomedical settings remains largely untapped. In particular, the main advantage of acoustic trapping over optical trapping, namely the ability of sound to propagate through thick and opaque media, has not yet been exploited in full. Here we demonstrate experimentally the use of the recently developed technique of single-beam acoustical tweezers to trap microbubbles, an important class of biomedically relevant microparticles. We show that the region of vanishing pressure of a propagating vortex beam can confine a microbubble by forcing low-amplitude, nonspherical, shape oscillations, enabling its full 3D positioning. Our interpretation is validated by the absolute calibration of the acoustic trapping force and the direct spatial mapping of isolated bubble echos, for which both find excellent agreement with our theoretical model. Furthermore, we prove the stability of the trap through centimeter-thick layers of bio-mimicking, elastic materials. Finally, we demonstrate the simultaneous trapping of nanoparticle-loaded microbubbles and activation with an independent acoustic field to trigger the release of the nanoparticles. Overall, using exclusively acoustic powering to position and actuate microbubbles paves the way toward controlled delivery of drug payloads in confined, hard-to-reach locations, with potential in vivo applications.

Buckling versus Crystal Expulsion Controlled by Deformation Rate of Particle-Coated Air Bubbles in Oil.

Oil foams stabilized by crystallizing agents exhibit outstanding stability and show promise for applications in consumer products. The stability and mechanics imparted by the interfacial layer of crystals underpin product shelf life, as well as optimal processing conditions and performance in applications. Shelf life is affected by the stability against bubble dissolution over a long time scale, which leads to slow compression of the interfacial layer. In processing flow conditions, the imposed deformation is characterized by much shorter time scales. In practical situations, the crystal layer is therefore subjected to deformation on extremely different time scales. Despite its importance, our understanding of the behavior of such interfacial layers at different time scales remains limited. To address this gap, here we investigate the dynamics of single, crystal-coated bubbles isolated from an oleofoam, at two extreme time scales: the diffusion-limited time scale characteristic of bubble dissolution, ∼104 s, and a fast time scale characteristic of processing flow conditions, ∼10-3 s. In our experiments, slow deformation is obtained by bubble dissolution, and fast deformation in controlled conditions with real-time imaging is obtained using ultrasound-induced bubble oscillations. The experiments reveal that the fate of the interfacial layer is dramatically affected by the dynamics of deformation: after complete bubble dissolution, a continuous solid layer remains; after fast, oscillatory deformation of the layer, small crystals are expelled from the layer. This observation shows promise toward developing stimuli-responsive systems, with sensitivity to deformation rate, in addition to the already known thermoresponsiveness and photoresponsiveness of oleofoams.

Tuning local microstructure of colloidal gels by ultrasound-activated deformable inclusions.

Colloidal gels possess a memory of previous shear events, both steady and oscillatory. This memory, embedded in the microstructure, affects the mechanical response of the gel, and therefore enables precise tuning of the material properties under careful preparation. Here we demonstrate how the dynamics of a deformable inclusion, namely a bubble, can be used to locally tune the microstructure of a colloidal gel. We examine two different phenomena of bubble dynamics that apply a local strain to the surrounding material: dissolution due to gas diffusion, with a characteristic strain rate of ∼10-3 s-1; and volumetric oscillations driven by ultrasound, with a characteristic frequency of ∼104 s-1. We characterise experimentally the microstructure of a model colloidal gel around bubbles in a Hele-Shaw geometry using confocal microscopy and particle tracking. In bubble dissolution experiments, we observe the formation of a pocket of solvent next to the bubble surface, but marginal changes to the microstructure. In experiments with ultrasound-induced bubble oscillations, we observe a striking rearrangement of the gel particles into a microstructure with increased local ordering. High-speed bright-field microscopy reveals the occurrence of both high-frequency bubble oscillations and steady microstreaming flow; both are expected to contribute to the emergence of the local order in the microstructure. These observations open the way to local tuning of colloidal gels based on deformable inclusions controlled by external pressure fields.

Acoustic bubble dynamics in a yield-stress fluid.

Yield-stress fluids naturally trap small bubbles when their buoyancy applies an insufficient stress to induce local yielding of the material. Under acoustic excitation, trapped bubbles can be driven into volumetric oscillations and apply an additional local strain and stress that can trigger yielding and assist their release. In this paper we explore different regimes of microbubble oscillation and translation driven by an ultrasound field in a model yield-stress fluid, a Carbopol microgel. We first analyse the linear bubble oscillation dynamics to measure the local, high-frequency viscosity of the material. We then use acoustic pressure gradients to induce bubble translation and examine the elastic part of the response of the material below yielding. We find that, at moderate pressure amplitude, the additional stresses applied by volumetric oscillations and acoustic radiation forces do not lead to any detectable irreversible bubble motion. At high pressure amplitude, we observe non-spherical shape oscillations that result in erratic bubble motion. The critical pressures we observe differ from the predictions of a recent model of shape oscillations in soft solids. Based on our findings, we discuss possible reasons for the lack of bubble release in Carbopol and suggest other systems in which ultrasound-assisted bubble rise may be observed.

Nanoparticle-Coated Microbubbles for Combined Ultrasound Imaging and Drug Delivery.

Biomedical microbubbles stabilized by a coating of magnetic or drug-containing nanoparticles show great potential for theranostics applications. Nanoparticle-coated microbubbles can be made to be stable, to be echogenic, and to release the cargo of drug-containing nanoparticles with an ultrasound trigger. This Article reviews the design principles of nanoparticle-coated microbubbles for ultrasound imaging and drug delivery, with a particular focus on the physical chemistry of nanoparticle-coated interfaces; the formation, stability, and dynamics of nanoparticle-coated bubbles; and the conditions for controlled nanoparticle release in ultrasound. The emerging understanding of the modes of nanoparticle expulsion and of the transport of expelled material by microbubble-induced flow is paving the way toward more efficient nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery. This Article highlights the knowledge gap that still remains to be addressed before we can control these phenomena.

Polymer nanocomposite capsules formed by droplet extraction: spontaneous stratification and tailored dissolution.

We report the formation of polymeric and nanocomposite capsules via droplet solvent extraction, focusing on the interplay between solvent exchange and removal, demixing and directional solidification kinetics. We investigate a model system of sodium poly(styrene sulfonate), NaPSS and silica nanoparticles in aqueous solution, whose phase behaviour is experimentally measured, and examine a series of selective extraction solvents (toluene, butyl acetate, ethyl acetate and methyl ethyl ketone), ranging from 0.04 to 11% v/v water solubility. Tuning the rate of solvent exchange is shown to provide an effective means of decoupling demixing and solidification timescales, and thereby tunes the internal microstructure of the capsule, including hollow, microporous, core-shell, and bicontinuous morphologies. In turn, these determine the capsule dissolution mechanism and kinetics, ranging from single to pulsed release profiles of nanoparticle clusters (at intermediate solubilities), to minimal dissolution (at either extremes). These findings provide facile design and assembly strategies for functional capsules with time-varying release profiles.

Dynamic Organization of Ligand-Grafted Nanoparticles during Adsorption and Surface Compression at Fluid-Fluid Interfaces.

Monolayers of ligand-grafted nanoparticles at fluid interfaces exhibit a complex response to deformation due to an interplay of particle rearrangements within the monolayer, and molecular rearrangements of the ligand brush on the surface of the particles. We use grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) combined with pendant drop tensiometry to probe in situ the dynamic organization of ligand-grafted nanoparticles upon adsorption at a fluid-fluid interface, and during monolayer compression. Through the simultaneous measurements of interparticle distance, obtained from GISAXS, and of surface pressure, obtained from pendant drop tensiometry, we link the interfacial stress to the monolayer microstructure. The results indicate that, during adsorption, the nanoparticles form rafts that grow while the interparticle distance remains constant. For small-amplitude, slow compression of the monolayer, the evolution of the interparticle distance bears a signature of ligand rearrangements leading to a local decrease in thickness of the ligand brush. For large-amplitude compression, the surface pressure is found to be strongly dependent on the rate of compression. Two-dimensional Brownian dynamics simulations show that the rate-dependent features are not due to jamming of the monolayer, and suggest that they may be due to out-of-plane reorganization of the particles (for instance expulsion or buckling). The corresponding GISAXS patterns are also consistent with out-of-plane reorganization of the nanoparticles.

Ultrafast desorption of colloidal particles from fluid interfaces.

The self-assembly of solid particles at fluid-fluid interfaces is widely exploited to stabilize emulsions and foams, and in materials synthesis. The self-assembly mechanism is very robust owing to the large capillary energy associated with particle adsorption, of the order of millions of times the thermal energy for micrometer-sized colloids. The microstructure of the interfacial colloid monolayer can also favor stability, for instance in the case of particle-stabilized bubbles, which can be indefinitely stable against dissolution due to jamming of the colloid monolayer. As a result, significant challenges arise when destabilization and particle removal are a requirement. Here we demonstrate ultrafast desorption of colloid monolayers from the interface of particle-stabilized bubbles. We drive the bubbles into periodic compression-expansion using ultrasound waves, causing significant deformation and microstructural changes in the particle monolayer. Using high-speed microscopy we uncover different particle expulsion scenarios depending on the mode of bubble deformation, including highly directional patterns of particle release during shape oscillations. Complete removal of colloid monolayers from bubbles is achieved in under a millisecond. Our method should find a broad range of applications, from nanoparticle recycling in sustainable processes to programmable particle delivery in lab-on-a-chip applications.

Stability of Clay Particle-Coated Microbubbles in Alkanes against Dissolution Induced by Heating.

We investigated the dissolution and morphological dynamics of air bubbles in alkanes stabilized by fluorinated colloidal clay particles when subjected to temperature changes. A model for bubble dissolution with time-dependent temperature reveals that increasing the temperature enhances the bubble dissolution rate in alkanes, opposite to the behavior in water, because of the differing trends in gas solubility. Experimental results for uncoated air bubbles in decane and hexadecane confirm this prediction. Clay-coated bubbles in decane and hexadecane are shown to be stable in air-saturated oil at constant temperature, where dissolution is driven mainly by the Laplace pressure. When the temperature increases from ambient, the particle-coated bubbles are prone to dissolution as the oil phase becomes undersaturated. The interfacial layer of particles is observed to undergo buckling and crumpling, without shedding of clay particles. Increasing the concentration of particles is shown to enhance the bubble stability by providing a higher resistance to dissolution. When subjected to complex temperature cycles, for which the effect of time-dependent temperature is dominant, the clay-coated bubbles can resist long-term dissolution in conditions under which uncoated bubbles dissolve completely. These results underpin the design of ultrastable oil foams stabilized by solid particles with improved shelf life under changing environmental conditions.

High-frequency linear rheology of hydrogels probed by ultrasound-driven microbubble dynamics.

Ultrasound-driven microbubble dynamics are central to biomedical applications, from diagnostic imaging to drug delivery and therapy. In therapeutic applications, the bubbles are typically embedded in tissue, and their dynamics are strongly affected by the viscoelastic properties of the soft solid medium. While the behaviour of bubbles in Newtonian fluids is well characterised, a fundamental understanding of the effect on ultrasound-driven bubble dynamics of a soft viscoelastic medium is still being developed. We characterised the resonant behaviour in ultrasound of isolated microbubbles embedded in agarose gels, commonly used as tissue-mimicking phantoms. Gels with different viscoelastic properties were obtained by tuning agarose concentration, and were characterised by standard rheological tests. Isolated bubbles (100-200 µm) were excited by ultrasound (10-50 kHz) at small pressure amplitudes (<1 kPa), to ensure that the deformation of the material and the bubble dynamics remained in the linear regime. The radial dynamics of the bubbles were recorded by high-speed video microscopy. Resonance curves were measured experimentally and fitted to a model combining the Rayleigh-Plesset equation governing bubble dynamics, with the Kelvin-Voigt model for the viscoelastic medium. The resonance frequency of the bubbles was found to increase with increasing shear modulus of the medium, with implications for optimisation of imaging and therapeutic ultrasound protocols. In addition, the viscoelastic properties inferred from ultrasound-driven bubble dynamics differ significantly from those measured at low frequency with the rheometer. Hence, rheological characterisation of biomaterials for medical ultrasound applications requires particular attention to the strain rate applied.

Clustering dynamics of microbubbles exposed to low-pressure 1-MHz ultrasound.

Ultrasound-driven microbubbles have been used in therapeutic applications to deliver drugs across capillaries and into cells or to dissolve blood clots. Yet the performance and safety of these applications have been difficult to control. Microbubbles exposed to ultrasound not only volumetrically oscillate, but also move due to acoustic radiation, or Bjerknes, forces. The purpose of this work was to understand the extent to which microbubbles moved and clustered due to secondary Bjerknes forces. A microbubble population was exposed to a 1-MHz ultrasound pulse with a peak-rarefactional pressure of 50-100 kPa and a pulse length of 20 ms. Microbubbles exposed to low-pressure therapeutic ultrasound were observed to cluster at clustering rates of 0.01-0.02 microbubbles per duration (in ms) per initial average inter-bubble distance (in µm), resulting in 1 to 3 clustered microbubbles per initial average inter-bubble distance (in µm). Higher pressures caused faster clustering rates and a larger number of clustered microbubbles. Experimental data revealed clustering time scales, cluster localizations, and cluster sizes that were in reasonable agreement with simulations using a time-averaged model at low pressures. This study demonstrates that clustering of microbubbles occurs within a few milliseconds and is likely to influence the distribution of stimuli produced in therapeutic applications.

Microporous Polymer Particles via Phase Inversion in Microfluidics: Impact of Nonsolvent Quality.

We investigate the impact of ternary phase behavior on the microstructure of porous polymer particles produced by solvent extraction of polymer solution droplets by a nonsolvent. Microfluidic devices fabricated by frontal photopolymerization are employed to produce monodisperse polymer (P)/solvent (S) droplets suspended in a carrier (C) phase before inducing solvent extraction by precipitation in a nonsolvent (NS) bath. Model systems of sodium poly(styrenesulfonate) (P), water (S), hexadecane (C), and either methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) or ethyl acetate (EA) as NS are selected. Extraction across the liquid-liquid interface results in a decrease in the droplet radius and also an ingress of nonsolvent, leading to droplet phase demixing and coarsening. As the concentration of the polymer-rich phase increases, droplet shrinkage and solvent exchange slow down and eventually cease, resulting in microporous polymer particles (of radius ≃50-200 µm) with a smooth surface. The internal structure of these capsules, with pore sizes of ≃1-100 µm, is found to be controlled by polymer solution thermodynamics and the extraction pathway. The ternary phase diagrams are measured by turbidimetry, and the kinetics of phase separation is estimated by stopped-flow small-angle neutron scattering. The higher solubility of water in MEK results in faster particle-formation kinetics than in EA. Surprisingly, however, the lower polymer miscibility with EA/water results in a deeper quench inside the phase boundary and small phase sizes, thus yielding particles with small pores (of narrow distribution). The effects of droplet size, polymer content, and nonsolvent quality provide comprehensive insight into porous particle and capsule formation by phase inversion, with a range of practical applications.

Shape oscillations of particle-coated bubbles and directional particle expulsion.

Bubbles stabilised by colloidal particles can find applications in advanced materials, catalysis and drug delivery. For applications in controlled release, it is desirable to remove the particles from the interface in a programmable fashion. We have previously shown that ultrasound waves excite volumetric oscillations of particle-coated bubbles, resulting in precisely timed particle expulsion due to interface compression on a ultrafast timescale [Poulichet et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2015, 112, 5932]. We also observed shape oscillations, which were found to drive directional particle expulsion from the antinodes of the non-spherical deformation. In this paper we investigate the mechanisms leading to directional particle expulsion during shape oscillations of particle-coated bubbles driven by ultrasound at 40 kHz. We perform high-speed visualisation of the interface shape and of the particle distribution during ultrafast deformation at a rate of up to 104 s-1. The mode of shape oscillations is found to not depend on the bubble size, in contrast with what has been reported for uncoated bubbles. A decomposition of the non-spherical shape in spatial Fourier modes reveals that the interplay of different modes determines the locations of particle expulsion. The n-fold symmetry of the dominant mode does not always lead to desorption from all 2n antinodes, but only those where there is favourable alignment with the sub-dominant modes. Desorption from the antinodes of the shape oscillations is due to different, concurrent mechanisms. The radial acceleration of the interface at the antinodes can be up to 105-106 ms-2, hence there is a contribution from the inertia of the particles localised at the antinodes. In addition, we found that particles migrate to the antinodes of the shape oscillation, thereby enhancing the contribution from the surface pressure in the monolayer.

Surface waves on a soft viscoelastic layer produced by an oscillating microbubble.

Ultrasound-driven bubbles can cause significant deformation of soft viscoelastic layers, for instance in surface cleaning and biomedical applications. The effect of the viscoelastic properties of a boundary on the bubble-boundary interaction has been explored only qualitatively, and remains poorly understood. We investigate the dynamic deformation of a viscoelastic layer induced by the volumetric oscillations of an ultrasound-driven microbubble. High-speed video microscopy is used to observe the deformation produced by a bubble oscillating at 17-20 kHz in contact with the surface of a hydrogel. The localised oscillating pressure applied by the bubble generates surface elastic (Rayleigh) waves on the gel, characterised by elliptical particle trajectories. The tilt angle of the elliptical trajectories varies with increasing distance from the bubble. Unexpectedly, the direction of rotation of the surface elements on the elliptical trajectories shifts from prograde to retrograde at a distance from the bubble that depends on the viscoelastic properties of the gel. To explain these behaviours, we develop a simple three-dimensional model for the deformation of a viscoelastic solid by a localised oscillating force. By using as input for the model the values of the shear modulus obtained from the propagation velocity of the Rayleigh waves, we find good qualitative agreement with the experimental observations.

Rapid short-pulse sequences enhance the spatiotemporal uniformity of acoustically driven microbubble activity during flow conditions.

Despite the promise of microbubble-mediated focused ultrasound therapies, in vivo findings have revealed over-treated and under-treated regions distributed throughout the focal volume. This poor distribution cannot be improved by conventional pulse shapes and sequences, due to their limited ability to control acoustic cavitation dynamics within the ultrasonic focus. This paper describes the design of a rapid short-pulse (RaSP) sequence which is comprised of short pulses separated by µs off-time intervals. Improved acoustic cavitation distribution was based on the hypothesis that microbubbles can freely move during the pulse off-times. Flowing SonoVue® microbubbles (flow velocity: 10 mm/s) were sonicated with a 0.5 MHz focused ultrasound transducer using RaSP sequences (peak-rarefactional pressures: 146-900 kPa, pulse repetition frequency: 1.25 kHz, and pulse lengths: 5-50 cycles). The distribution of cavitation activity was evaluated using passive acoustic mapping. RaSP sequences generated uniform distributions within the focus in contrast to long pulses (50 000 cycles) that produced non-uniform distributions. Fast microbubble destruction occurred for long pulses, whereas microbubble activity was sustained for longer durations for shorter pulses. High-speed microscopy revealed increased mobility in the direction of flow during RaSP sonication. In conclusion, RaSP sequences produced spatiotemporally uniform cavitation distributions and could result in efficient therapies by spreading cavitation throughout the treatment area.

Interactions and stress relaxation in monolayers of soft nanoparticles at fluid-fluid interfaces.

Nanoparticles with grafted layers of ligand molecules behave as soft colloids when they adsorb at fluid-fluid interfaces. The ligand brush can deform and reconfigure, adopting a lens-shaped configuration at the interface. This behavior strongly affects the interactions between soft nanoparticles at fluid-fluid interfaces, which have proven challenging to probe experimentally. We measure the surface pressure for a stable 2D interfacial suspension of nanoparticles grafted with ligands, and extract the interaction potential from these data by comparison to Brownian dynamics simulations. A soft repulsive potential with an exponential form accurately reproduces the measured surface pressure data. A more realistic interaction potential model is also fitted to the data to provide insights into the ligand configuration at the interface. The stress of the 2D interfacial suspension upon step compression exhibits a single relaxation time scale, which is also attributable to ligand reconfiguration.

Cooling Particle-Coated Bubbles: Destabilization beyond Dissolution Arrest.

Emulsions and foams that remain stable under varying environmental conditions are central in the food, personal care, and other formulated products industries. Foams stabilized by solid particles can provide longer-term stability than surfactant-stabilized foams. This stability is partly ascribed to the observation that solid particles can arrest bubble dissolution, which is driven by the Laplace pressure across the curved gas-liquid interface. We studied experimentally the effect of changes in temperature on the lifetime of particle-coated air microbubbles in water. We found that a decrease in temperature destabilizes particle-coated microbubbles beyond dissolution arrest. A quasi-steady model describing the effect of the change in temperature on mass transfer suggests that the dominant mechanism of destabilization is the increased solubility of the gas in the liquid, leading to a condition of undersaturation. Experiments at constant temperature confirmed that undersaturation alone can drive destabilization of particle-coated bubbles, even for vanishing Laplace pressure. We also found that dissolution of a particle-coated bubble can lead either to buckling of the coating or to gradual expulsion of particles, depending on the particle-to-bubble size ratio, with potential implications for controlled release.

Interstitial flow potentiates TGF-ß/Smad-signaling activity in lung cancer spheroids in a 3D-microfluidic chip.

Within the tumor microenvironment (TME), cancer cells use mechanotransduction pathways to convert biophysical forces to biochemical signals. However, the underlying mechanisms and functional significance of these pathways remain largely unclear. The upregulation of mechanosensitive pathways from biophysical forces such as interstitial flow (IF), leads to the activation of various cytokines, including transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß). TGF-ß promotes in part via a Smad-dependent signaling pathway the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in cancer cells. The latter process is linked to increased cancer cell motility and invasion. Current research models have limited ability to investigate the combined effects of biophysical forces (such as IF) and cytokines (TGF-ß) in a 3D microenvironment. We used a 3D-matrix based microfluidic platform to demonstrate the potentiating effect of IF on exogenous TGF-ß induced upregulation of the Smad-signaling activity and the expression of mesenchymal marker vimentin in A549 lung cancer spheroids. To monitor this, we used stably integrated fluorescent based reporters into the A549 cancer cell genome. Our results demonstrate that IF enhances exogenous TGF-ß induced Smad-signaling activity in lung cancer spheroids embedded in a matrix microenvironment. In addition, we observed an increased cell motility for A549 spheroids when exposed to IF and TGF-ß. Our 3D-microfluidic model integrated with real-time imaging provides a powerful tool for investigating cancer cell signaling and motility associated with invasion characteristics in a physiologically relevant TME.

Non-linear response of colloid monolayers at high-frequency probed by ultrasound-driven microbubble dynamics.

HYPOTHESIS: High-frequency interfacial rheology of complex interfaces remains challenging yet it is central to the performance of multiphase soft matter products. We propose to use ultrasound-driven bubble dynamics to probe the high-frequency rheology of a colloid monolayer used as model system with controlled interactions and simultaneous monitoring of the microstructure. We hypothesize that by comparing the response of colloid-coated bubbles with that of a bare bubble under identical experimental conditions, it is possible to detect the non-linear response of the monolayer and use it to extract interfacial rheological properties at 104s-1. EXPERIMENTS: Using high-speed video-microscopy, the dynamics of colloid-coated bubbles were probed to study the micromechanical response of the monolayer to high-frequency deformation. Protocols analogous to stress-sweep and frequency-sweep were developed to examine the stress-strain relationships. A simple model, motivated by the observed non-linear responses, was developed to estimate the interfacial viscoelastic parameters. FINDINGS: The estimated elastic moduli of colloid monolayers at 104s-1 are about an order of magnitude larger than those measured at 1 s-1. The monolayers exhibit non-linear viscoelasticity for strain amplitudes as small as 1%, and strain-softening behaviour. These findings highlight the applicability of acoustic bubbles as high-frequency interfacial probes.