In a message dated 9/10/00 12:40:13 PM EST, [email protected] writes: << Check the definition of sputtering and of evaporation. What you descripe is evaporation, and entirely different animal from sputtering. Evaporation not only requires high tempertures, but usually requires a hard vacuum as well. Sputtering happens at any temperature, even room temperature. It is when electrons in an arc have sufficient energy to knock individual atoms or clumps of atoms off the target material when they hit. A very good example of sputtering at room temperature is the darkening of the ends of florsecent lamps at the ends, where the tungston is sputtered off and then condenses onto the ends of the glass tubes making them black. The tungston is far below the melting point of tungston when this happens. Marshall >>
Marshall: I'm sure you're correct in your definition of sputtering. However, I still think that what I call "sputtering" may not be evaporation because it occurs spontaneously and is way out of proportion to the apparent temperature rise of the molten ball. It appears (producing copious sparks and a smokey corona) and disappears while the ball is still molten and seems to originate from inside the ball exactly where the white hot cross section of the beam touches it. Has anyone else observed this phenomenon? Roger -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
