Liquid breathing can not effectively protect the lung from biophysical forces associated with the gas ventilator. New application modes for PFC have been developed. Partial liquid ventilation (PLV) involves filling the lungs with a fluid. This fluid is perfluorocarbon, also called Liquivent or Perflubron. The liquid has some unique properties. It has a very low surface tension, similar to surfactant, a substance that is produced in the lungs to prevent the alveoli from collapsing and sticking together during exhalation. It also has a high density, oxygen readily diffuses through it, and it may have some anti-inflammatory properties. In PLV, the lungs are
Surface tension entropy, energy and free energy. As stated above, the mechanical work needed to increase a surface area "A" is . Hence at constant temperature and pressure, surface tension equals Gibbs free energy per surface area: where is Gibbs free energy and is the area. Thermodynamics requires that all spontaneous changes of state are accompanied by a decrease in Gibbs free energy. From this it is easy to understand why decreasing the surface area of a mass of liquid is always spontaneous (), provided it is not coupled to any other energy changes. It follows that in order to increase surface