American scientists studying the formation of nanobubbles in boiling water say their findings may affect technologies as diverse as inkjet printers and cancer therapies.
According to a report on the research published in the Physical Review Letters journal, researchers from Cornell University and the National Institute of
Standards and Technology uncovered traces of ephemeral nanobubbles
formed in boiling water on a microheater using a microscope and photography with shutter speeds of a few nanoseconds,
It is believed that the experiments show the first evidence of nanoscale bubbles forming on hydrophilic surfaces.
The method for measuring the lifetime of nanobubbles may improve models for optimal heat transfer design in nanostructures.
Such research has implications for inkjet printing, in which a pulse of electricity is used to heat a metal film in order to create a bubble which, in turn, is employed to eject a tiny ink droplet through a nozzle.
