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Article: Bursting bubbles break chemical bonds.(flows created by collisions of high-powered jets of liquid can break chemical bonds)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- October 11, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Blasting two high-powered jets of liquid into each other is bound to mix things up, and a new study demonstrates just how much. The fast, turbulent flows created by such a collision are powerful enough to break chemical bonds, researchers have found.
The source of this power lies in bubbles, says Kenneth S. Suslick of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He and his team used a laboratory device that smashes two fluid jets into each other. The device was originally designed to blend fine droplets of liquid, but Suslick's interest lay in its application to chemistry. He suspected that bubbles rapidly growing and collapsing in the turbulent collision ...