To detect the smallest drop of water

2006/11/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Ingeniaritza
• Teknologia
• Fisika
• Kimika

The smallest water drops can also cause major damage to fuels, organic solvents, or lubricants. Therefore, it is important to have adequate tests that detect water in these topics.

The Weizmann Institute has developed an effective and useful test for the detection of water molecules. It is a film of 1.7 nanometers thick that detects the small water molecules that can be in the liquid, although there are only parts per million.

To do this, the film includes metal complexes. These metallic complexes capture electrons from water molecules, when the color of the complex changes. The color change is visual.