In our recent study published in 2018, we show how evaporation enhances the lifetime of bubbles even without addition of surfactants (cover page of journal PDF issue). We quantify this process, model it, and give an illustration of the process in an analog experiment with salt, which shows that crystals of salts can even nucleate at the top of the bubble (illustrating the increase of concentration at the top). The crystals once formed, slide down the cap, meanwhile, the drainage of the bubble can be stopped, leading to constant thickness values (see figure on the right) and very long lifetimes. We derive the model balancing the evaporation and drainage to show how a plateau in thickness (and long lifetime) can emerge due to evaporation.
Poulain, S., Villermaux, E., and Bourouiba, L. (2018) Ageing and burst of surface bubbles. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 851: 636-671. Selected for volume cover page: PDF.
More on project here.