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New Material With Hydrogen Could Lead to Superconductivity


Guest_Jim_*

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As simple as hydrogen may be, one proton and one electron, it is a very unusual material that can express some interesting properties, under the right conditions. An example of this would be that solid hydrogen can enter a metallic state and act as a superconductor, but solid hydrogen requires very cold temperatures to form. Naturally researchers have been working on ways to warm things up, and those at the Carnegie Institution for Science have recently made a couple important discoveries to that end.

While pure hydrogen will still only solidify at a specific critical temperature, combining this element with one of the alkali metals below it, lithium, sodium, and potassium, could create hydrogen-rich compounds that can have their properties altered. These compounds could then be made to act as superconductors, while still surviving at more practical temperatures. The researchers have finally confirmed these predictions by creating a sodium/hydrogen material. Of course producing this material was far from easy, requiring temperatures around 2000 K (3100 ºF) and pressures between 300,000 and 400,000 times atmospheric pressure (30 - 40 gigapascals). Now that we have the ability to make the material though, we have a good start for finding easier methods of producing it.

When analyzed the compound was seen to have two different so-called polyhydrides, on being NaH3 and the other being NaH7. The latter molecule was especially interesting to see, because three of the hydrogen atoms in it lined up to form a one-dimensional chain. This was first predicted in 1972 and represents a new phase quite distinct from normal hydrogen.

Source: Carnegie Institution for Science



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