Scientists have discovered a new technique to boil water in less than a trillionth of a second.
Researchers from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL ) led by Dr. Oriol Vendrell developed a theoretical concept by which one can heat a small amount of water and bring the temperature up by 600 degrees Celsius in just half of a picosecond. However, the theoretical concept has not been put into practice yet.
The calculated fraction of time is less than a wink of an eye as one picosecond is as long as what a second is to a 32 millennia. Once put into practice, this new theory could be the fastest way to boil water.
According to the theoretical concept, this could be possible through the help of terahertz radiation. Terahertz radiation is made of electromagnetic waves whose frequencies alter between infrared and radio waves. Terahertz flashes are created with free electron lasers which sends accelerated electrons on a shalom course. These accelerated particles emit their electromagnetic waves which, when accumulated, becomes an intense laser-like pulse. A pulse of terahertz can change the interaction of water molecules in a very short time, causing them to vibrate, and therefore heat up.
Simulations of the theoretical concept were done at the Supercomputer Center Julich (SJC). The simulations for the study used up to 200,000 hours of processor time by parallel computation.
Dr. Vendrell told the Economic Times: "We have calculated that it should be possible to heat up the liquid to about 600 degrees Celsius within just half a picosecond, obtaining a transiently hot and structureless environment still at the density of the liquid, leaving all water molecules intact".
This new concept may be the start of discovering more effective ways of heating up substances and studying the chemical process that takes place as they change their temperature.
