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Credit: Cornell University
Droplets of liquid take on complex shapes and behave in different ways, each having a distinct resonance – such as a drumhead or a violin string – depending on the complex relationship between the liquid, the solid it falls off and the surrounding gas.
Droplet motions have implications for everything from making silicon chips to measuring body fluids, but up to now, there was no way to classify their movement.
A team led by Paul Steen, professor of engineering at Cornell University, has created a periodic table of droplet motions, inspired in part by parallels between the symmetries of atomic orbitals, which determine the position of elements on the classical periodic table. , and the energies that determine the shapes of the droplets.
"The question was, can we put these into a sort of organization that allows us to give them a little more meaning?" Steen, lead author of "Droplet Motions Fill a Periodic Table", published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"The order is very similar to the periodic table of chemical elements," he said. "We move from higher energy to lower energy, from left to right and from top to bottom."
They also found that droplet motions could be classified according to their distinctive shape symmetries. For example, droplets that form a star shape with five points would all be in a group.
"We call them movement elements," said Steen, referring to the classic periodic table. Each element of movement of the new table (which could possibly include an infinite number of entries, depending on several variables), classifies a single mode of movement of a droplet. "You can use combinations of these to understand moving molecules."
In the study, Steen's team discovered the first 35 motion elements provided for vibrating water droplets on a surface with a contact angle of about 60 degrees.
Potential applications of this periodic table, which could help researchers understand the origin of a droplet, could include forensics at the crime scene, Steen said. Analysts could apply the table classifications to the applicable blood and surface to identify the energies involved, and then better deduce the possible cause of certain types of projections.
"Once you understand how a motion can be broken down, it tells you more about its origin," he said.
Explore further:
UNESCO celebrates the 150th anniversary of the periodic table of chemistry
More information:
Paul H. Steen et al. Droplet movements complete a periodic table, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2019). DOI: 10.1073 / pnas.1817065116
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