Making water salt-free is essential if we need to achieve the highest level of industrial productivity. Studies suggest that many economies suffer on the industrial front due to salt deposits in the pipes of machinery or system. And the estimates are that it is nearly a fourth of the total GDP in industrial countries. Now heat exchangers in the power plants are the worst affected parts. So, the researchers at MIT look forward to making water salt-free with self-ejection.
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Making water salt-free with self-ejection- Crystal Critters
The researchers have published their work in the journal called “Science Advances”. And their study reveals how they can take advantage of crystallization and remove it from the surfaces. Samantha McBridge, Henri-Louis Girard, and Kripa Varanasi are the dedicated researchers working on it. They tell heat, hydrophobic surfaces, and salts present in the water are the ingredients that make self-ejection possible. So, in this process, crystal structures thus formed are self-removed from the surfaces. And make them less prone to corrosion.
McBride quotes, “When you evaporate a drop of saltwater on a super hydrophobic surface, usually what happens is those crystals start getting inside of the texture and just form a globe, and they don’t end up lifting off.” He further adds, “So it’s something very specific about the texture and the length scale that we’re looking at here that allows this effect to occur.”
The crystal critters:
When the water from such surfaces evaporates, leg-like structures form during the end phase of evaporation. And these structures only grow as the water continues to evaporate. The fluid moves through these legs towards the surface, continuously pushing upwards. It results in the formation of some structures that seemingly resemble some live organisms like elephants, a crab, or a non-biological structure called a droid. Most often these structures are abstract and these researchers have named them as “crystal critters”. Now, as these legs grow they are left with minimal adhesion to the surface. And the structures mounted on these legs fall off owing to self-weight. It thus highlights the process of making water salt-free with self-ejection.
Heat & critters’ growth relation:
Because these structures grow due to evaporation, it establishes a relation between the temperature and the critters’ growth. Now, many a time, the falling off happens due to gravity. But otherwise too, the structures detach themselves from the surface and are removed later. Researchers thus here stress taking advantage of the heat and the super-hydrophobic surface to reduce corrosion. Else accumulation of the impurities or water salts results in blockage of pipes. And this in turn results in huge losses to establish countermeasures of corrosion. With this, it possible to use even the brackish water in industries, which rely on pre-treated water.
