New Research Reveals That Water Behaves Different Inside Carbon Nanotubes

Scientific inventions in the modern world seem to focus on factual findings that will play integral roles in the future of science. The recent news from the scientific world reveals that researchers have discovered a surprising behavior of water inside carbon nanotubes. It is now evidently clear that water can do strange things in minute spaces. Water boils at a higher temperature of 100 degree Celsius at sea level. This is equated to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. In confined spaces, previous research indicated that boiling point changes by dropping several degrees. Researchers recently discovered that water confined in carbon nanotubes at the first time behaves in a unique way. The water does not boil at lower temperatures but instead freezes at temperatures that go beyond the boiling point.
Researcher Michael Strano from Massachusetts Institute of Technology pointed out that this effect is so incredible than was previously thought. The researcher explained that confining a fluid to nanocavity distorts phase behavior (McDonalld, 2016). Strano explains that phase behavior illustrates the way water transforms between the solid, liquid, and the gas phases. During the trial process, it was predictable that being restricted inside a carbon nanotube would bring a change to the transitions but no one had ever imagined that the effect will be so unique and extreme. No one also predicted the possibility that it will result in this new direction.

The researchers were expecting that the small space will perfectly lower instead of raising the freezing point by about 10 degree Celsius. This is because this is the main results that occur when water is trapped in very small spaces. The team made several other tests and one proved that the water froze at a temperature that went above 105 degree Celsius. This is high above boiling point.

In one of the team’s tests, the water froze at a temperature above 105 degrees Celsius (221 degrees Fahrenheit) – well above boiling point. The main challenge faced by researchers was to measure the right temperature within tubes without causing any interference with the true results. The minimum was 105 degree Celsius while the actual freezing point went higher to 151 degree Celsius (305. 5 Fahrenheit). This new discovery reveals that water as an abundant substance on the planet carries many uncertain research topics.
There is a need for researchers to explore it and learn how water works. Researchers also learned that water has two liquid states and not one as taught in high school. The main secret is unearthing the truth behind carbon nanotubes that measure the behavior of water.

Since the tubes are tiny and look like straws with slight openings on sides, it propped researchers to use the vibrational spectroscopy technique that helped them track movements of water and come up with its state as liquid, solid or gas. This was the first of a kind research and it bore fruits that have brought new expansions in the scientific world. In conclusion, according to the research team, the difference between nanotubes of 1.05 nanometer and 1.06 nanometer had freezing points that changed by tens of Celsius that are also equivalent to 18 degrees Fahrenheit.