How Does Water Boil?

Insight into the boiling of water is obtained from molecular dynamics simulations. The process is initiated by the spontaneous formation of small vacuum cavities in liquid water. By themselves, these defects are very short lived. If, however, several cavities occur at close distances, they are likely to merge into larger vacuum holes. At the liquid-vapor interfaces, single or small groups of water molecules tend to leave the liquid surface. Once the system is propagated beyond the transition state, these evaporation events outnumber the competing reintegration into the hydrogen-bonded network.