{"id":34167,"date":"2023-03-31T05:44:19","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T00:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=34167"},"modified":"2025-04-20T09:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T04:04:09","slug":"scientists-spot-piezoelectric-effect-in-liquids-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/scientists-spot-piezoelectric-effect-in-liquids-for-the-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Spot Piezoelectric Effect in Liquids for the First Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the Piezoelectric Effect?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the History behind the Piezoelectric Effect?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>About Piezoelectric Materials<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Examples of Piezoelectric Materials<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Applications of Piezoelectric Effect<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Discovery of Piezoelectric Effect in Liquids<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the Significance of this Discovery?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A pair of chemists at Michigan State University has observed the piezoelectric effect in liquids for the first time.<\/li>\n<li>In their paper published in <i><strong>The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters<\/strong><\/i>, <strong>Md. Iqbal Hossain<\/strong> and <strong>G. J. Blanchard<\/strong>, describe accidently observing the property while studying ionic liquids.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the Piezoelectric Effect?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/Er3TNOOrPegf5-pCEQO1S9EhN1-XEADV8hkNHkmZNvkZ7_3UzF-KZfYGhLOhpKL4VQCh50BdNs5ASxQ47S0dzGaLDcvSvDxA8b2WIVIIRLJlNtrZSqGymQJYXb1e78z8GYu7n-1K_kJu\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Piezoelectric Effect<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The piezoelectric effect is a phenomenon where specific types of material (e.g., <strong>quartz<\/strong>, <strong>topaz<\/strong>, etc.) produce an electric charge proportional to the mechanical stress applied to them.<\/li>\n<li>It occurs when there is a conversion of kinetic or mechanical energy due to crystal deformation, into electrical energy.<\/li>\n<li><i><strong>Piezoelectric materials are materials that can produce electricity due to mechanical stress<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>When a piezoelectric material is placed under mechanical stress, there is a shift of the positive and negative charge centres in the material, which then results in an external electric field.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the History behind the Piezoelectric Effect?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In 1880, <strong>Jacques<\/strong> and <strong>Pierre Curie<\/strong> discovered that pressure generates electrical charges in certain types of crystals such as quartz and tourmaline.<\/li>\n<li>They called this phenomenon the &#8220;piezoelectric effect&#8221;. The <i><strong>word &#8220;piezo&#8221; is derived from the Greek word piezein, which means to squeeze or press<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Later they noticed that <i><strong>electric fields can deform piezoelectric materials<\/strong><\/i>. This effect is called the &#8220;<i><strong>inverse piezoelectric effect<\/strong><\/i>&#8220;.<\/li>\n<li>After these first demonstrations, more work was undertaken to explore the great potential of the piezoelectric effect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About Piezoelectric Materials<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A crystal is any solid with atoms or molecules that are arranged in a very orderly way based on repetitions of the same basic atomic building block (the unit cell).<\/li>\n<li><i><strong>In most crystals (such as in metals), the unit cell is symmetrical; in piezoelectric crystals, it isn&#8217;t<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Normally, piezoelectric crystals are electrically neutral.<\/li>\n<li>The atom arrangement may not be symmetrical, but the electrical charges are perfectly balanced: a positive charge in one place cancels out a negative charge nearby.<\/li>\n<li>However, <i><strong>stretching or squeezing a piezoelectric crystal deforms the structure, pushing some of the atoms closer together or further apart<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>This <i><strong>upsets the balance of positive and negative, and causes net electrical charges to appear<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Examples of Piezoelectric Materials<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>There are a variety of piezoelectric materials, both man-made and natural, that can produce electricity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Natural \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The most well-known, and the first commercially available piezoelectric material used in electronic devices is the <strong>quartz crystal<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Other naturally-occurring piezoelectric materials include <strong>topaz<\/strong>, <strong>tourmaline<\/strong>, and even <strong>bone<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Man-made \u2013<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A breakthrough came when scientists developed a new class of man-made materials, called <strong>ferroelectrics<\/strong>, which exhibited piezoelectric characteristics many times more powerful than piezoelectric crystals.<\/li>\n<li>Scientists kept searching for higher performance materials and this resulted in the development of <strong>barium titanate<\/strong> and <strong>lead zirconate titanate<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>Applications of Piezoelectric Effect<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Developed in the 1900s to detect icebergs, the <i><strong>sonar device is the first practical application for piezoelectric devices<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>Sensors, high voltage generators, electronic frequency generators, microbalances, inkjet printers, and ultra-fine focusing and alignment of optical assemblies among others all exploit piezoelectric technology.<\/li>\n<li>It is also the basis of a number of scientific instrumental techniques with atomic resolution, such as <i><strong>scanning tunnelling microscopes<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Discovery of Piezoelectric Effect in Liquids<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The researchers at Michigan State University were studying properties of ionic liquids.\n<ul>\n<li>Ionic liquids are made from salts with unsymmetrical, flexible organic cations and symmetrical weakly coordinating anions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The liquid piezoelectric material was discovered as the researchers applied pressure with a piston to a sample of an ionic liquid in a cylinder.<\/li>\n<li>To their surprise, they found that this led to the release of electricity.<\/li>\n<li>They also found that the amount of electricity released was proportional to the amount of pressure applied.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the Significance of this Discovery?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The reason the piezoelectric effect has only been expected in solids thus far is that the body being squeezed needs to have an organised structure, like the pyramids of quartz.<\/li>\n<li>Liquids don\u2019t have such structure; instead, they take the shape of their container.<\/li>\n<li>The researchers suggest that liquid piezoelectric materials could prove to be useful, especially ones made using ionic liquids, because <i><strong>they would be more environmentally friendly than solid materials<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<li>They also note that <i><strong>liquid piezoelectric materials could allow more variety in device shape, opening up wider design opportunities<\/strong><\/i>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What are Ionic Liquids?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Ionic liquids (ILs) are normally defined as compounds completely composed of ions with melting point below 100 \u00b0C. The first IL (ethylammonium nitrate) was reported by Paul Walden in 1914.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong> <strong>What is Doppler Effect?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Doppler effect, or Doppler shift, describes <strong>the changes in frequency of any kind of sound or light wave produced by a moving source with respect to an observer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/science\/scientists-spot-piezoelectric-effect-in-liquids-for-the-first-time\/article66671337.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Scientists spot piezoelectric effect in liquids for the first time<\/u><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Piezoelectric effect, material produces an electric charge when stress is applied on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":34168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}