Water Is Power - Or Soon May Be

Polypyrrole Polymer

MIT engineers have created a polymer, they call it a film, that generates electrical energy by the flexing motion (mechanical movement) of the film as absorbs and evaporates water vapor.  The article, called "New Material Harvests Energy From Water Vapor" has all the details.

As it turns out, the polymer called polypyrrole has been used before, but resulted in too weak a response to generate much electricity at all.  The new approach interlocks another, more rigid polymer, called polyol-borate, into the polypyrrole.  Interweaving both materials gives the film a much larger displacement motion as the water vapor is absorbed and then evaporated.   It is this displacement motion that is converted to electrical energy.

I wouldn't look for this new stuff to be lifting cars for chassis repair anytime soon, but the developers think the power will be sufficient to run a whole host of micro-electrical devices.  Just goes to show you, there is more power in water than just the hydrogen and oxygen.

Another Interesting Property of Water

Water is a pretty fantastic material when you stop to think about it.  Most of you know that it has some rather peculiar properties that other materials don't have - most notably that it expands just before freezing while just about everything else contracts as it cools.  Well as it turns out, it also can conduct electricity in an odd manner, too - under the right circumstances.

The link below takes you to the NewScientist TV website for a short (54 seconds) video of what I'm talking about.  Suspended in oil, a water drop is charged by a positively charged electrode.  It then is attracted to the negatively charged water drop just below it.  Normally it would just assimilate into the larger droplet and we'd be done.  But in this experiment, the electrode produces an electric field between itself and the negatively charged water drop below, that instead of assimilating, the smaller, positively charged drop "kisses" the larger, negatively charged drop - allowing the transfer of negatively charged ions to the positive drop and positive ions to the negative drop - and the smaller drop appears to bounce off the larger drop.  With the small drop now negatively charged, it is attracted again to the positive electrode and the pattern repeats itself. 

The suggestion is that this understanding might one day aid oil companies in separating water from oil in a more efficient way.  I don't know, but I'd be a little leery of putting too much electricity into a sizable pool of oil you've just pumped.  Anyway, take a look at this NewScienceTV video if I've confused you completely. 

Water's Uniqueness

Scientists currently speak of 66 unique, anomalous traits that water has - including varying density qualities, a large capacity to store heat and a higher surface tension than other liquids. It is a really remarkable substance when you get down on the molecular level.

I would propose a 67th anomalous trait - the ability to stress out everyone and everything that uses it - especially when there is too much or too little of it, it's in the wrong place, comes to us in the wrong form (snow, hail, etc.), gets dirty, is too hot or too cold, has the wrong critters in it, someone wants your share, or others want to tell you how to best use it.

It's managing this stress that makes man's desire to manage water so intense at times. Many claim the next wars will likely be initiated over water - not the normal political/cultural/religious differences we have or any other natural resources such as oil & natural gas, precious metals or gems, etc. It's hard to say if this will be borne out, as others argue for an equal probabilty that water differences will lead to cooperative solutions because it is so universally fundamental and unique. My guess is..., I'd better not say.

Anyway, I have a feeling we're not done discovering the true uniqness of water yet, or the creativity man will apply to manage it - for themselves or for you.