  While growth and dissolution of surface nanobubbles has been widely studied
in recent years, their stability under pressure changes or a temperature
increase has not received the same level of scrutiny. Here, we present
theoretical predictions based on classical theory for pressure and temperature
thresholds ($p_c$ and $T_c$) at which unstable growth occurs for the case of
air nanobubbles on a solid surface in water. We show that bubbles subjected to
pinning have much lower $p_c$ and higher $T_c$ compared to both unpinned and
bulk bubbles of similar size, indicating that pinned bubbles can withstand a
larger tensile stress (negative pressure) and higher temperatures. The values
of $p_c$ and $T_c$ obtained from many-body dissipative particle dynamics (MDPD)
simulations of quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) surface nanobubbles are
consistent with the theoretical predictions, provided that the lateral
expansion during growth is taken into account. This suggests that the modified
classical thermodynamic description is valid for pinned bubbles as small as
several nanometers. While some discrepancies still exist between our
theoretical results and previous experiments, further experimental data is
needed before a comprehensive understanding of the stability of surface
nanobubbles can be achieved.
