Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I'm the "Environmental Bank" who possesses all the worldwide environmental issues. On April 24th, 2024, a ground-breaking research suggested that light causes water evaporation without the help of heat. Since we have used heat for a long time to vaporize water, vaporizing it without the heat interested scientists. Then, let’s dive into the issue.
What is the finding & Who found it?
The MIT team (with the leader of Professer Gang Chen) found that light can vaporize water without the need for heat. They demonstrated that shooting the light over its surface could liberate the water molecules, which triggers them to evaporate the water. (= photomolecular effect)
What is the photomolecular effect?
Photomolecular effect is the effect of water molecular clusters being cleaved off by the visible light.
What are the significances of the experiment?
"I think this has a lot of applications, We’re exploring all these different directions. And of course, it also affects the basic science, like the effects of clouds on climate, because clouds are the most uncertain aspect of climate models."
Professor Gang Chen, Professor of MIT
- enables us to understand light-water interactions in cloud (especially, interactions that influence weather and climate)
- explains a long-standing discrepancy in climate science
- brings an improvement of cloud-related calculations
What are the potential applications/ further implications of photomolecular mechanisms?
- Practical possibilites
There are various kinds of fields that we could utilize the photomolecular mechanisms, such as in syrup evaporation and paper drying. This mechanism especially plays a crucial role in solar desalination system and industrial drying processes.
- Flourishment of the scientific community
Professor Shannon Yee of Georgia Tech applauds the work for introducing a new physical mechanism, prompting a reevaluation of our understanding of evaporation kinetics.
Wrap-up
Until recently, many scientists have thought that the only source of water vaporization is "the heat". However, through this new finding, we realized that "light" can also be the provider of vaporization. Since the method of using "heat" to vaporize water requires lots of energy, I expect that shifting to the method of utilizing "light" would vastly reduce the amount of energy, which is welcoming news for our planet.
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