Why Food Sticks To Nonstick Frying Pans
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Despite the use of nonstick frying pans, foods will sometimes get stuck to a heated surface, even if oil is used. The results can be very messy and unappetizing.
Scientists at the Czech Academy of Sciences began an investigation of the fluid properties of oil on a flat surface, such as a frying pan. Their work, reported in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, shows convection may be to blame for our stuck-on food.
The experimental investigation used a nonstick pan with a surface comprised of ceramic particles. A video camera was placed above the pan as it was heated and used to measure the speed at which a dry spot formed and grew. Further experiments with a Teflon-coated pan showed the same.
"We experimentally explained why food sticks to the center of the frying pan," said author Alexander Fedorchenko. "This is caused by the formation of a dry spot in the thin sunflower oil film as a result of thermocapillary convection."
Journal Reference:
A. I. Fedorchenko, J. Hruby. On formation of dry spots in heated liquid films, Physics of Fluids (DOI: 5.0035547)
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