In a surprising finding, light can make water evaporate without heat | Photomolecular effect

According to an MIT study, at the interface of water and air, light can, in certain conditions, bring about evaporation without the need for heat.

The phenomenon might play a role in the formation and evolution of fog and clouds, and thus would be important to incorporate into climate models to improve their accuracy. And it might play an important part in many industrial processes such as solar-powered desalination of water, perhaps enabling alternatives to the step of converting sunlight to heat first.

Credits: iStock
Credits: MIT

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[voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang]

what's the "hydrogel material" - lecithin?

[faraday]

The hydrogel increases surface area and also wicking, maximizing evaporation.

[ChristopherSaputa-mmjh]

What Is the Hydrogel component absorption spectrum and specific heat?
If you don't consider itssoectrsl interval heat absorption-bond excitation kinetic activation heat transfer to water to increase the surfae warer excitation you have not analyzed a full system and tthe experiment is incomplete.. the analogy would be stretching a rubber band under water.
Light absorption of the gel matrix is "Work" just like stretching the rubber band. The band heats up because degrees of freedom are restricted vs when loose and heat gets expelled. One must consider not just gel matrix absorption raising its heat content, but also the polymer changes in degrees of freedom under water pressure and due to increased water absorption Kinetics from the light, leading to polymer chain shedding heat easier from 1) light absorption; 2) degree freedom changes from light, 3) degree freedom changes from increased water excitation secondarily upon the polymer chains.
Ie' Polyethylene is close to maximum absorption in green ligh and it's polymer chains are under changing restriction from warmer weight, static attractions around chains and excitation vibrational changes from itself absorbing light.
Thus model isn't closed in system analysis.