Water droplets can jump too. Not only that, it looks like when they do so off a superhydrophobic surface, they can carry an electrical charge that might be able to be harnessed for more efficient power plants and new sources of energy.
MIT researchers stumbled upon the discovery when they noticed the droplets acting peculiarly with each other in midair.
"We found that when these droplets jump, through analysis of high-speed video, we saw that they repel one another midflight," lead author on the study Nenad Miljkovic said. "Previous studies have shown no such effect. When we first saw that, we were intrigued."
The scientists were able to prove there was a charge by placing a charged electrode on the superhydrophobic surface. The droplets were repelled by a positive charge and attracted to a negative charge, showing that these little bits of water were retaining currents.
The charge is created when water drops form and two layers, one positive and one negative, are established. These droplets then harness the charge by jumping off the superhydrophobic surface (due to excess surface energy) so fast that the charge essentially gets separated. The surface retains some, and the droplets get some.
The team believes that they are on the right track to developing a process to properly harness this charge. Earlier research proposed that they could have the drops jump off a condenser surface, a common component in most of the world's electrical plants, leading to a more efficient system of transferring heat. The new findings give the scientists a way to control the flow of the drops with nearby charged plates, meaning they can "'mitigate' any tendency of the droplets to return to the condenser, 'and enhance the heat transfer,'" Miljkovic says in the official MIT press release.
You can read the full published findings in the journal Nature Communications.
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