The movement of water drops can hide an important key to the development of new fuels.
“Most people would observe that rainwater drips down a window or the windshield of a car in a disordered manner, but would not know that it generates a small electric charge,” says Peter Sherrell, one of the authors published on Tuesday at Physical Review Letters.
The team of investigators found that when a drop of water finds a small protruding or a rough point on a surface, it accumulates strength until it suddenly “jumps” or “slips” by the obstacle. This movement creates much more electric charge than we thought.
“In this work, we showed thatue the load can be created when the liquid contacts the surfacewhen it passes the moist, and is 10 times stronger than the damp load to dry, ”explains the author.
“The important thing is that this load does not disappear. Our investigation did not exactly identify where this load resides, but clearly shows that it is generated in the interface and is probably retained in the drop as it moves over the surface, ”he continues.
According to the researchers, cited by, this discovery is important because it can help scientists to Develop coatings to reduce load in new fuels.
“Understanding how and why electric charge is generated during the flow of liquids on surfaces is important as we begin to adopt thenew renewable flammable fuels Necessary for a transition to liquid zero, ”explains Sherrell.
The investigation was made based on the material used in Teflon (which does not conduct electricity), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
In this Teflon plate, the team measured the electrical charge of the dripping water, and even photographed the drops to adhere and slip. The first time the water has played on the surface created the largest change in the load, 0 a 4,1 nanocoulombs (nC).
“To put things in perspective, the amount of electric charge that water produced when moving on the surface of PTFE was more than one million times smaller than the static shock you can receive from someone who jumps beside you in a trampoline, ”explains another author, Shuaijia Chen.
Scientists already have plans for the future: “We plan to study where Stick-Slip movement can affect the safety design of fluid handling systems, such as those used to store and transport ammonia and hydrogen as well as methods to recover electricity and accelerate liquid movement loading on power storage devices.”
