Bubbles and
Steam Electricity
New Article by T.V. Prevenslik
Abstract:
In 1840, Lord Armstrong was the first to study the electrical
charge produced as steam escaped from boilers, the phenomenon
called steam electricity. In 1969, interest in steam electricity
was renewed because of explosions caused by the ignition of chemical
vapors during the washing of ship tanks with steam jets. Steam
electricity is proposed explained by the bubbles nucleated in
the boiling of water droplets, the bubbles behaving like resonant
quantum electrodynamic (QED) cavities. During bubble growth as
the bubble cavity resonance coincides with vacuum ultraviolet
frequencies, the water molecules on the bubble walls dissociate
by cavity QED into hydronium H3O+ and hydroxyl OH- ions. After
recombination, only about 20% of the ions are available for electrification,
the ions called available ions to be distinguished from the hydronium
and hydroxyl ions in the bubble walls described by the pH and
pOH of water, called background ions. Boiler water having an acid
pH is the result of acid-base equilibrium between dissolved carbon
dioxide and carbonic acid, the concentration of background hydronium
ions controlled by the buffering action by carbonate and bicarbonate
ions. The chemistry may be described by the pH of the boiler water,
and if acidic the bubble surface is charged positive by the abundance
of background hydronium ions. Available hydronium ions are repulsed
from the positive charged bubble surface and tend to the center
of the bubble forming a positive charged vapor; whereas, the available
hydroxyl ions are attracted to the bubble surface. Bursting of
the bubbles at the surface of the droplet produces positive charge
steam and negative charged droplets. Conversely, bubbles in boiling
water having a basic pH produce a negative charged vapor and positive
charged liquid droplets.
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