New research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences He notes that light can cause water to evaporate even without additional heat. Researchers discovered an unexpected method of evaporation while conducting experiments in which water was trapped within a hydrogel. Even though there was no thermal energy for evaporation, the researchers saw evaporation rates as high as two to three times the theoretical maximum.

This led researchers to discover that light can accelerate evaporation by interacting with the water surface and initiating evaporation. This does not require heat, and although the experiments involved hydrogel, the researchers say the phenomenon can be extended to other scenarios.

So what exactly does this mean? The implications here are huge. First, such light-induced evaporation could help create better options for desalination, a process that relies on evaporating water and removing salt from it, the researchers say. This water then condenses again to create clean, drinkable water.

Armed with this new knowledge, researchers will undoubtedly want to learn more about how light causes water to evaporate without additional thermal heating. As I mentioned, the implications for how this could be used in the future are huge, leaving plenty of room to incorporate this into various areas of our lives.

From the aforementioned desalination efforts to drying processes and even a possible new approach to solar cooling, the ability to use and understand light-driven evaporation could be a game changer for scientists moving forward, especially since it could completely alter our current models of climate change. As of now, they were not based on light-driven evaporation.

Ultimately, we’re still a few years away from any of this, but it still leaves some interesting possibilities for scientists to examine. Source