Nanoparticles Change Crystal Structure When Wet

Roland Piquepaille writes "This news release from the University of California at Berkeley is quite astonishing. 'A UC Berkeley team comprised of physicists, chemists and mineralogists reports on the unusual behavior of a semiconducting material, zinc sulphide (ZnS), when reduced to pieces only 3 nanometers across. They found that when the surface of a ZnS nanoparticle gets wet, its entire crystal structure rearranges to become more ordered, closer to the structure of a bulk piece of solid ZnS.' My summary includes two images of a 3 nanometer zinc sulphide (ZnS) nanoparticle with or without surface-bound water. How can this be used for? Surprisingly, they think that it 'could provide a way to tell whether pieces of rock from outer space came from planets with water.'"

Comments

Obviously

[WTFmonkey]

I obviously need to brush up on my physics. I read that description, closed my eyes, and couldn't remember a single word. There were probably some articles and prepositions, nouns and verbs, but I coudn't guarantee it. Might as well have said, "For cwedgy floomptorps now, wristwatches bedoggle one's crystal-o-morphix shindiggity. With extra bananas."

Why am I posting this, you ask? This article just looked like it needed a few more comments. Bye.