A 3D view into chaos: Researchers visualize temperature-driven turbulence in liquid metal for the first time

Phys.org   March 11, 2024 Researchers in Germany conducted an experiment inside a cylinder filled with the ternary alloy GaInSn focusing on the manifestation and dynamics of the large-scale circulation (LSC) in turbulent liquid metal convection. The large-scale flow structures were classified and characterized at Rayleigh numbers by means  enabling the full reconstruction of the three-dimensional flow structures in the entire convection cell. They identified the dominating modes of the turbulent convection. The analysis revealed that a single-roll structure of the LSC alternates in short succession with double-roll structures or a three-roll structure. This was accompanied by dramatic fluctuations of the […]

Liquid metal proven to be cheap and efficient CO2 converter

Phys.org  October 13, 2021 An international team of researchers (Australia, USA – UCLA, North Carolina State University) has developed technology to capture carbon that uses suspensions of gallium liquid metal to reduce CO2 into carbonaceous solid products and O2 at near room temperature. The nonpolar nature of the liquid gallium interface allows the solid products to instantaneously exfoliate, hence keeping active sites accessible. The solid co-contributor of silver-gallium rods ensures a cyclic sustainable process. The overall process relies on mechanical energy as the input, which drives nano dimensional triboelectrochemical reactions. When a gallium/silver fluoride mix at 7:1 mass ratio was […]