Nearly a century after it was theorized, Harvard scientists report they have succeeded in creating the rarest material on the planet, which could eventually develop into one of its most valuable.
Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Isaac Silvera and postdoctoral fellow Ranga Dias have long sought the material, called atomic metallic hydrogen. In addition to helping scientists answer some fundamental questions about the nature of matter, the material is theorized to have a wide range of applications, including as a room-temperature superconductor. Their research is described in a paper published today in Science.
“This is the Holy Grail of high-pressure physics,” Silvera said of the quest to find the material. “It’s the first-ever sample of metallic hydrogen on Earth, so when you’re looking at it, you’re looking at something that’s never existed before.”
In their experiments, Silvera and Dias squeezed a tiny hydrogen sample at 495 gigapascal (GPa), or more than 71.7 million pounds per square inch, which is greater than the pressure at the center of the Earth. At such extreme pressures, Silvera explained, solid molecular hydrogen, which consists of molecules on the lattice sites of the solid, breaks down, and the tightly bound molecules dissociate to transforms into atomic hydrogen, which is a metal.
While the work creates an important window into understanding the general properties of hydrogen, it also offers tantalizing hints at potentially revolutionary new materials.
“One prediction that’s very important is metallic hydrogen is predicted to be meta-stable,” Silvera said. “That means if you take the pressure off, it will stay metallic, similar to the way diamonds form from graphite under intense heat and pressure, but remain diamonds when that pressure and heat are removed.”
Understanding whether the material is stable is important, Silvera said, because predictions suggest metallic hydrogen could act as a superconductor at room temperatures.
“As much as 15 percent of energy is lost to dissipation during transmission,” he said, “so if you could make wires from this material and use them in the electrical grid, it could change that story.”
A room temperature superconductor, Dias said, could change our transportation system, making magnetic levitation of high-speed trains possible, as well as making electric cars more efficient and improving the performance of many electronic devices. The material could also provide major improvements in energy production and storage. Because superconductors have zero resistance, superconducting coils could be used to store excess energy, which could then be used whenever it is needed.
Metallic hydrogen could also play a key role in helping humans explore the far reaches of space, as a more powerful rocket propellant.
Hydrogen is also the most abundant substance in the universe making up approximately 75% of baryonic mass so it makes sense to fashion new materials and incorporate new ways in using it. Also very fascinating news, womder what's next?
nice, but it is in that form because of the pressures. to keep it in large quantities in that form would require really strong vessels which would be really heavy.
more research/trials is needed to see if it can be more economical than present fuel sources.
sMASH wrote:nice, but it is in that form because of the pressures. to keep it in large quantities in that form would require really strong vessels which would be really heavy.
more research/trials is needed to see if it can be more economical than present fuel sources.
they say it metastable, so it would retain it's state when the pressure is released
i thought they were saying if it could be metastable, that it would be viable to work with. and that that is what the further research is needed for... to get it to that state.
they would have it in the pressurized chamber, as shown somewhere in the beginning of the vid. then insert probles to test what they have to test.
the hydrogen didn't turn into metal. it was merely compressed enough, that the atoms are close enough proximity that the electrons behave like those in a metal. . . . . read up a bout partial pressures and then ull understand bout how what they did, was only under high pressure, and it would be difficult to achieve that without the pressure.
