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Is it possible to mechanically ionize a substance? Eg. by pressing it through a molecular sieve or by vibration or mechanical waves. Or anything else? I am talking about breaking chemical bonds through mechanical force and not chemistry.

ergon
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Certainly, Check out the Fire Syringe. Simple rapid compression of gas.

docscience
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    Awesome! The children in the science room at my daughter's school are going to love this. – Selene Routley Sep 11 '16 at 13:03
  • @WetSavannaAnimalakaRodVance The video, impressive, but you can actually purchase at low cost from Arbor Scientific: http://www.arborsci.com/fire-syringe – docscience Sep 11 '16 at 13:06
  • what is the mechanism of action? high pressure > high temperature > ionization? I want it to happen mechanically, not thermally – ergon Sep 11 '16 at 19:54
  • Ionization occurs at the atomic level. At that level the term mechanical as we know it in our everyday use really loses meaning, Stripping away or injecting electrons into the atom can't be done with a pair of (smaller than atom) tweezers or with a sub atomic hammer and chisel. The tool set of manipulating what goes on inside an atom is restricted to things like particles and fields. The syringe is mechanically operated but yes the rapid pressurization leads to an increase in temperature and that's what causes the ionization. – docscience Sep 12 '16 at 02:05
  • @ergon By mechanical I believe you may be thinking of affecting the atoms by touch. Realize that even in the realm of our experience we do not actually touch things when we apply force. The forces are all transmitted by electromagnetic forces at the smallest, atomic levels. Atomic force microscopes can image and manipulate individual atoms, but they really don't touch them. Hope that helps. – docscience Sep 12 '16 at 14:06
  • @docscience I am aware of that. However, I had in mind a molecular sieve, maybe a charged one, that if you pressurize molecules through it, they will be ionized. Is there anything like this? – ergon Sep 12 '16 at 14:24
  • @ergon Not that I'm aware of. Interesting concept; like filter paper filtering out electrons. But at the atomic level I wouldn't consider that a mechanical process. Try posting on the chemistry stack exchange. I'm wondering if there is a material that serves as a catalyst that might do what you want to do. Un-ionized fluid (or gas) in, ionized fluid out. – docscience Sep 12 '16 at 14:52