Question

Why is evaporation a surface phenomenon?

Answer 1

Surface phenomena

• Surface phenomena, which take place at the boundaries between liquid and solid phases, can be simply physical in nature, or chemical changes can accompany them.
• Capillary phenomena are surface phenomena related to surface tension and resulting from the modification of liquid boundary surfaces.

Evaporation

• Water changes from a liquid to a gas or vapor through the process of evaporation.
• The primary pathway by which water returns to the water cycle as atmospheric water vapor from the liquid state is evaporation.
• Evaporation is a surface phenomenon.
• During evaporation, the molecules with higher kinetic energy escape into the air from the uppermost layer of the liquid, making it a surface phenomenon.
• When water is exposed to sunlight for an extended period of time, the temperature of the water rises.
• As a result, the hydrogen bonds of water at the surface start to break, and the dissociated molecules start to rise.
• As a result, evaporation occurs from the outside but not from the inside.