What
is sonoluminescence?
How does this alternative benefit people?
Why have I not heard or seen much about this technology?
According to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, "sonoluminescence is the emission of light by bubbles in a liquid excited by sound." The first process of sonoluminescence is to create a bubble with one percent argon impurity in a container filled with liquid. The size of this bubble should be about 4 microns in diameter. Next, sound waves with a frequency at around 110 decibels will bombard the bubble, causing sonoluminescence to be initiated. At first, the tiny bubble grows to at least one hundred microns wide. Then, the bubble collapses to 1 micron. During this process, the temperature of the bubble can rise as high as 72 000 K.1
How does this alternative benefit people?
Like other alternative energies, sonoluminescence is clean and renewable, and at the same time produces large amounts of energy. It is for this very feature that it is possible with sonoluminescence to break down materials at the subatomic level; that can help to recycle different types of materials. Sonoluminescence can also be used to create fusion. Fusion is thought to occur in the bubble, for the pressure and the temperature are so high. Even several industrial laboratories have used the sonoluminescence process to fuse hydrogen into metal.
Why have I not heard or seen much of this technology?
Scientists are still unable to fully explain this phenomenon, although it has already been 65 years since scientists at the University of Cologne first discovered sonoluminescence in 1934.2
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