Molecules in a fluid not randomly arranged
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 06:30
in Physics & Chemistry
FOM PhD researcher Matthijs Panman and his colleagues from the University of Amsterdam have demonstrated that molecules in liquid alcohol are not randomly oriented with respect to each other. The angle between the oxygen-hydrogen bonds of two neighbouring alcohol molecules is usually about 120 degrees. This discovery refutes the commonly held idea that molecules in a liquid are randomly arranged. The researchers published their work on 12 November 2014 in Physical Review Letters.