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Published online 4 July 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.935
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Hot rods make boiling better
Kettle lined with tiny copper rods enables faster bubbling.
For a faster, more bubbly boil, try adding a layer of copper nanorods to the inside of your kettle.
Researchers led by Nikhil Koratkar at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, have discovered that lining a copper pot with copper nanorods makes water boil much more quickly.
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While the reasoning and conclusion seem very logical and correct, I can't help but wonder if the increased surface area also contributes to the results that they saw. I don't have access to their published paper to see if they have taken this into consideration, but this article does not give the slightest mention about it.
Just to be clear, by increased surface area, I mean an increase of the area that passes on the heat to the water particles.
This will have no effect on energy efficiency in using electric heaters to boil water. All the energy that is disipated in the resistance flows into the water. There is no where else for it to go. Either it flows into the water, or it accumulates and the temperature rises. Nano-rods of copper will corrode quite rapidly if exposed to water that contains air.
It must be very difficult to clean between all those little nanorods!!!