Scientists recently defied nature to create square-shaped droplets. No, this is not a drill. Square droplets were created by researchers at Aalto University in Finland by disrupting the natural tendencies of liquid droplets.
So here goes – When two different substances mingle, they stabilise into a state called “thermodynamic equilibrium” akin to what happens when you make a cup of coffee. Causing a disruption in this state was the goal of the researchers and it worked!
Aalto University
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What inspired these researchers?
Professor Jaakko Timonen was quoted by Phys.org said that things in equilibrium tend to “quite boring”, whose work was published in Science Advances on September 15.
Once out of the this balanced state, scientists played around with potential outcomes – which led to the creation of square-shaped droplets.
Aaltos University
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What else? In the same project, researchers also did something equally startling by creating “liquid lattices”. Lattices are grid-like structures that appear in solid forms, but never in liquid – these scientists changed that.
How did scientists create square droplets?
To achieve their uncanny goals, scientists created a combination of oils with different physical properties which were then passed under an electric field. It is during this phase that the state of balance is lost and new unseen patterns are formed – like the newly found square and even hexagonal shapes.
Aaltos University
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This project helps scientists widen their understanding of liquid matter and the potential to manipulate liquids for scientific purposes. These manipulated droplets could even act as a sentient organism in their own right under the right circumstances.
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