Boo! Halloween is around the corner, and the scientists have set the tempo by explaining a phenomenon long attached to ghosts and the paranormal— will-o’-the-wisps, or the jack-o’-lantern. Blue flames hover over swamps and marshes, inspiring humans’ creative minds to spin stories of the supernatural from this theatrical flame display.
However, science does not promote propaganda of the paranormal. Instead, scientists have long speculated that “marsh gas”, or methane, is the fuel to the fire. It is odorless and colorless, and ignites in no time. Decaying matter in swamps and bogs releases methane gas, and it constitutes two-thirds of the swamps. When methane reacts with atmospheric oxygen and gets oxidized, it glows with a blue-violet hue. It must be noted that the mere presence of oxygen leads to more fiasco than fire, as there is no evidence of spontaneous combustion when these two gases mix. So what’s the source of ignition?
Scientists believe that flashes of “microlightning” zap between charged bubbles formed by methane in water. As multiple bubbles of methane oxidize and coalesce with one another, they produce the weird light effects of the will-o’-the-wisps.
But wait, doesn’t water extinguish fire? Well, here’s an interesting and lesser-known fact. Tiny droplets of water actually aid in making a fire. The scientists used a camera that can record videos at a rate of 24,000 frames per second. It has captured that an electronic charge is zipping along it. When oppositely charged bubbles come into each other’s vicinity, electrons jump from the negatively charged bubble to the positive one, generating a spark.
Scientists believe that this spark is all that’s needed to initiate various kinds of chemical reactions. Minuscule, but effective, this process can be used in future to develop sustainable methods of chemical reaction.
Prior to discovering the weird phenomena of the will-o’-the-wisps, senior study author Dr. Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and professor of chemistry at Stanford University in California, showed that charged water droplets ranging from 1 micron to 20 microns in diameter— thinner than human hair, can generate microlightning, powerful enough to produce organic compounds. He also speculates that this process might have been key to the formation of life on Earth billions of years ago.
In the new experiment, scientists used a nozzled device to generate minute bubbles of methane in water, and noted occurrences of microlightning between the bubbles. The experiment looks promising, but there are a few unanswered questions. Firstly, the experiment has been conducted in deionized water, which is an insulator and facilitates charge separation. However, swamp water is packed with organic and inorganic compounds, many of which are electrolytes. These electrolytes prevent charge separation, as they are not insulators. Without separation of charges, generation of sparks is impossible. The glow achieved was significantly lesser than the glow of will-o’-the-wisps.
“We’re doing this at room temperature without applying any external electric field and without necessarily having to add catalysts,” Zare explained. This opens new roads into the process of making different chemicals. It could become a possible solution in effectively disposing atmospheric methane by triggering chemical reactions that oxidize methane. Methane makes up about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and is 28% more potent than CO₂ in trapping heat. Harnessing the power of microlightning can become a breakthrough in methane disposal, however scientists are still unclear about the process’ potency in industrial conditions.
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