hello everyone,

sorry if the answer to my question is easy to find if i just look but the further down the screen i go the "stupider" ( not even a word) i feel.

but here goes....

does anyone know of any gas or gases that have a reaction of expanding when introduced to a low (?) level of electrical current.

gasoline has a high reaction to a very intense ( sparkplug firing) and is subsequently burnt up.

i'm thinking about a gas that would expand but not burn or explode . but rapidly expand. and upon removal of the electrical charge ( or current) would cease to expand and revert completely or mostly back to its original state.

if anyone knows anything like this i would appreciate some info as i am doing some research.

thanks

pil

I don't know a lot about gases, but it sounds like you could run a motor with this gas and never have to refuel it.... sounds too good to be true, so probably not.

I don't think you could do this with a gas. You need long-range order and lots of interactions, which basically means you need a solid in a lattice. Piezoelectric devices expand when you apply a voltage (or generate a voltage under pressure/compression). Solids can have different behavioral characteristics along different axes, but the randomness of a gas probably precludes this effect.

 

The only possibility I can think of would be if you could polarized your sample and maintain that. Then there's a slight possiblity that there could be expansion along one axis due to an electric or magnetic field. But I've only heard of this type of thing happening in solids - not liquids or gases.

would a vacuum help?

like a light bulb?