Bending modulus of bidisperse rafts: Local and collective contributions

The bending modulus of air-water interfaces covered by a monolayer of bidisperse particles is probed experimentally under quasistatic conditions via the compression of the monolayer, and under dynamical conditions studying capillary-wave propagation. Simple averaging of the modulus obtained solely with small or large particles fails to describe our data. Indeed, as observed in other configurations for monodisperse systems, bidisperse rafts have both a granular and an elastic character: chain forces and collective effects must be taken into account to fully understand our results.