Explainer: What are water microdroplets and why are chemists talking about them?
By 
Jennifer Newton2024-01-10T10:38:00
Researchers are struggling to agree on the underlying reasons for accelerated rates and altered reaction mechanisms in water microdroplets. Here’s what we do know and where open questions lie…
What are water microdroplets?
They’re just what they sound like: really tiny water droplets. A microdroplet is around 10μm in size, which is about 100 times smaller than a raindrop..
Water microdroplets are the focus of a live and contentious scientific debate. Studies suggest they can accelerate the rates of numerous organic reactions – in some cases by as much as 10,000 times – as well as initiate reactions that do not occur in bulk water solutions. The implications are wide-ranging and extend from explaining prebiotic chemistry to enhancing synthetic chemistry. If chemists can understand them better, and work out how to scale reactions that use them, water microdroplets could help researchers avoid expensive catalysts or high temperatures and pressures when making numerous chemicals.