MOSCOW, April 4 Scientists from the Tyumen State University (Tyumen State University) as part of a research team managed to stabilize levitating drops of salt solution above the water surface. According to them, this will improve understanding of the mechanisms of airborne and airborne transmission of infectious diseases. The results of the researchers' work are published in the International Journal of Thermal Sciences.
Previously, researchers have already described a similar technology for pure water droplets: they discovered the phenomenon of levitating droplet water clusters above the solution surface. Tyumen State University physicists have learned how to stabilize water clusters and increase their lifetime from tens of seconds to several hours using an infrared beam.
“The task is largely dictated by the need to work with microorganisms that are traditionally cultivated in nutrient media based on saline. Accordingly, , biocluster drops inevitably contain salt, and you need to at least understand what it affects,” said Alexander Fedorets, head of the research laboratory for microhydrodynamic technologies of Tyumen State University X-BIO.
In their work, physicists not only experimentally proved the possibility of obtaining and maintaining the existence of salty drops above the water surface, but also proposed two theoretical models for describing these processes.
The scientists also plan to take 2D aerosol technology to the next level. An aerosol is a two-phase system consisting of small droplets of liquid or small particles of solid matter dispersed in a volume of gas. Examples of household aerosols are sore throat sprays, air humidifiers, hair sprays or graffiti paints.
Fedorets added that research into the little-studied processes in aerosols and understanding the physics of these processes can help significantly advance in the study of the spread of pathogens by airborne droplets, the chemical evolution of atmospheric pollution, and even the mechanisms of climate change.
As noted in Tyumen State University, the facilities used by university physicists to conduct their research have no analogues in Russia and abroad.
Scientists from Tyumen State University, Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov and the Joint Institute for High Temperatures of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Tyumen State University is a participant of the «Priority-2030» program.