Scientists have uncovered a “shape-recovering liquid” that seems to go against the principles of physics as we know them.
thermodynamics
The substance, composed of oil, water, and magnetic particles, consistently divides into a shape similar to a Grecian urn.
This discovery began when
Anthony Raykh
A polymer science and engineering graduate student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was examining a combination of oil, water, and nickel particles within a vial. Upon agitating the container to produce an emulsion—a suspension of two immiscible liquid phases—he observed something unusual: rather than dividing clearly into distinct layers above and below, the concoction took on the form of a Grecian urn. Despite repeated agitation, the mixture consistently reverted to this distinctive configuration.
“That’s quite peculiar,” noted the study’s co-author
Thomas Russell
A professor of polymer science and engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst shared with Live Science, “It’s unusual,” as he pointed out, since usually when a combination of immiscible liquids returns to equilibrium prior to forming an emulsion, their natural inclination is to reduce the interfacial area—the border separating the two fluids. The drive towards minimizing this interface adheres to the principles of thermodynamics, which outline the relationships among temperature, heat transfer, mechanical work, and various forms of energy within physical systems.
In standard mixtures of oil and water, the fluids create round droplets with the least possible surface area. Conversely, the Grecian urn design possesses a larger surface area. This increased surface area appears to defy natural laws, leaving scientists perplexed.
Following an investigation into this unusual behavior, they discovered that the interactions among the nickel particles seemed to dominate, leading to what looked like a breach of thermodynamic principles, as Russell explained. These particles generated magnetic dipoles—a situation wherein their magnetic poles drew toward one another—forming chains within the liquid’s surface layer. This interplay disrupts the way the emulsion typically divides.
Although Russell mentioned that investigators had earlier studied the separation of particles within oil-water mixtures—similar to what Raykh was working on—not a single researcher had performed this exact experiment. Consequently, none of them had noticed or documented the increased interfacial energy associated with the Grecian urn form.
At first look, this combination appears to contradict the principles of thermodynamics. However, Russell explained that it’s merely an unusual instance where these rules come into play. Scientists discovered that the magnetic disruption caused by the particles was responsible because it led to increased interfacial energy, contributing to the formation of shapes with larger surface areas. In essence, according to Russell, the laws of thermodynamics pertain to entire systems rather than specific particle-to-particle interactions.
The research team released their study on April 4th in the periodical
Nature Physics
.
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