Credit: Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, from S. Nune et al, Nature Nanotechnology, 2016
PNNL researchers saw for the first time a phenomenon that was theorized more than 20 years ago. Shown here is a PNNL illustration of the phenomenon, "solvent cavitation under solvo-phobic confinement," which PNNL researchers saw occur with carbon-rich nanorods they mistakenly created. PNNL's viewing of the phenomenon involved liquid spontaneously evaporating after being confined within tiny spaces in between touching nanorods.