Continuous organic synthesis in water around micro-orifices after flows

Abstract

Water flows through micro-orifices are important because they occur in various fields, such as biology, medical science, chemistry, and engineering. We have reported in previous work that organic matter was generated in micro-orifices after water flowed through the orifice, and we proposed that the organic matter was synthesized from nonorganic materials, including CO 2 and N 2 dissolved in water from air, and water via the action of hydroxyl radicals produced by the flow through the micro-orifice. In the present study, we examined whether organic materials are produced in the water outside of the orifices in addition to that in the orifice. We used the decrease in water volume to measure the organic synthesis because water should be consumed during the synthesis, and thus the decrease in water volume should reflect the organic synthesis. We let ultrapure water containing dissolved air flow through a micro-orifice as a pre-flow, we stopped the flow, and then we measured the volume of water enclosed in the mount in which the micro-orifice was set over more than 100 h. The volume of water decreased gradually and substantially over time. We used Raman and infrared spectroscopy to analyze the residue obtained by evaporating the water present around the orifice. The residue contained organic matter, including carotenoids, amides, esters, and sugars, which were similar to those found in the membranes generated in the orifice in our previous paper, suggesting that the organic matter was synthesized in a wide region of water around the orifice as well as in the orifice. These results may be relevant to the origins of life and biology, and may lead to the development of a technology for reducing CO 2 in air, as well as applications in many scientific and engineering fields.

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“…Xerosydryle's phenomenologies hitherto are not explainable with the reigning theories. The same holds for the other outcomes of contact between water and an assortment of inert, insoluble, hydrophilic polymers, e.g., the EZ or IPW phenomenologies, or the generation of organic compounds when water flows near or through hydrophilic micro-orifices (Zheng et al 2006, Elton et al 2020, Zhang et al 2015, Hasegawa et al 2017, Hasegawa et al 2020, Elia et al 2019, Elia et al 2018, Yinnon et al 2016, Elia et al 2020, Elia et al 2015. The EZ, discovered in 2006, has been studied by many researchers (Zheng et al 2006, Elton et al 2020).…”

“…Most peaks in the ~1700-400 cm -1 range and the peaks around ~2900 cm -1 are characteristic of organic compounds. Such peaks have also been observed in water flowing near or through hydrophilic micro-orifices, which have been attributed to sugars, amides, esters and C-CH bonds (Hasegawa et al 2020). Since GC shows that the eluted fraction of R IPW predominantly consists of H 2 O molecules (Elia et al 2018, Elia et al 2017) and since the FT-IR spectra of R IPW show that features in its absorbance at ~3000-3600 cm…”

“…Seemingly, the EZ catalyzes reactions among airborne molecules, as suggested by the organic compounds forming when water flows near or through hydrophilic micro-orifices (Hasegawa et al. 2017, Hasegawa et al 2020.…”

Experiments on Liquid Flow through Non-Circular Micro-Orifices

“…For example, micro-orifices are used to suppress flow instabilities in micro-evaporators [17] and to control the Micromachines 2020, 11, 510 2 of 13 flow in vapor compression refrigeration systems [18,19]. Micro-orifices are also used in corrosion studies [20][21][22][23], in flow metering [24] and for organic matter synthesis [25]. Due to its practical relevance, orifice microfluidics has been investigated extensively, both for single-phase and two-phase flow.…”