In the video, hydrogen and oxygen are seen forming nanoscale water; To look

In a study published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team of researchers describes how they managed to film the fusion of hydrogen and oxygen atoms at the molecular level and in real time. The most impressive part of the video is the formation of tiny nanoscale water bubbles.

The experiment was carried out by scientists from Northwestern University in the US, who were trying to understand how palladium catalyzes the gas reaction that produces water. Based on the observations, the team was able to uncover some of the mechanisms involved in the process and identify new strategies to speed up the reaction.

The reaction does not require extreme conditions, scientists explain, opening up possibilities to aid water formation in extremely dry environments. For example, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Could use this technique on space missions to ‘produce’ water for astronauts – Might be a good strategy for future missions to the Moon.

“By visualizing water production directly at the nanoscale, we were able to identify ideal conditions for rapid water production at ambient conditions. These findings have important implications for practical applications, such as enabling rapid water production in deep space environments using gases and metal catalysts,” Vinayak Dravid, lead author of the study, said in an official statement. without requiring extreme reaction conditions,” the statement said.

Water: hydrogen and oxygen

To achieve this result, the researchers developed a new technique that uses ultrathin glass membranes to capture and analyze gas reactions in real time. New technique allowed them to observe How atoms interact with atomic precision on the palladium surface during the formation of nanoscale water.

Scientists discovered that by adding hydrogen to palladium before oxygen, the reaction occurs more quickly and efficiently.. Another positive aspect of the technique is that, although palladium is expensive, it is recyclable. In other words, the water formation process doesn’t consume the metal itself, so scientists can continue to use palladium over and over again to produce water.

The team also claims that for the first time it is possible to perform simultaneous analyzes of spectral and mutual information. Initially, Science discovered in the mid-1900s that palladium was a good catalyst for creating water, but the reaction had never been observed at the atomic level..

“Think of Mark Watney, Matt Damon’s character in the movie ‘The Martian’. He burned rocket fuel to extract hydrogen and then added oxygen from his oxygenator. Our process is similar except we ignore the need for fire and other extreme conditions. Mix palladium and gases,” Dravid added.

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