[elil17]

The paper is accounting for the energy that the light is delivering. The very neat thing about this paper is that it does change the bonding energy between water molecules that has to be overcome for evaporation to occur.

They observed evaporation of clusters of molecules, not individual molecules. Since whole groups of molecules are flung into the air, not all of the intermolecular bonds need to be broken for them to evaporate. Heat from the air is later used to break those clusters apart into individual molecules.

[pdonis]

> They observed evaporation of clusters of molecules, not individual molecules. Since whole groups of molecules are flung into the air, not all of the intermolecular bonds need to be broken for them to evaporate. Heat from the air is later used to break those clusters apart into individual molecules.

This sounds more like the light is making thin fog, not water vapor.

[elil17]

Well, sort of. I’m conceptualizing it as an intermediate state between a vapor and an aerosol. The aerosol would have way more intermolecular bonds per molecule on average since most of its molecules are in the insides of droplets. But these molecule clusters have all or almost all their molecules exposed on the clusters surface, so they have many fewer intermolecular bonds.

[pixl97]

Evaporation should be a function of surface area. In a large pool of water the evaporation should occur primarily in the upwards direction. Any molecular activity that is sideways or downwards will not lead to the molecule escape.

Once a water particle escapes, depending on the clump size it should have more degrees of freedom in evaporation and I would think surface tension would be reduced.