Narayana, Chandrabhas ; Luo, Huan ; Orloff, Jon ; Ruoff, Arthur L. (1998) Solid hydrogen at 342 GPa: no evidence for an alkali metal Nature, 393 (6680). pp. 46-49. ISSN 0028-0836
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Official URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/29949
Related URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/29949
Abstract
Solid hydrogen, an electrical insulator, is predicted to become an alkali metal under extreme compression, although controversy surrounds the pressure required to achieve this1–3. The electrical conductivity of hydrogen as a function of pressure and temperature is of both fundamental and practical interest—metallic hydrogen may be of relevance to planetary interiors4 and has been suggested as a potential high-temperature superconductor5. Calculations1,2 suggest that depairing (destruction of the molecular bond) should occur around 340 GPa, accompanied by the formation of an alkali metal at this pressure1 or at substantially higher pressures2,3. Here we report that solid hydrogen does not become an alkali metal at pressures of up to 342 ± 10 GPa, achieved using a diamond anvil cell. This pressure (which is almost comparable to that at the centre of the Earth) significantly exceeds those reached in earlier experiments—216 GPa (ref. 6) and 191 GPa (ref. 7)—at which hydrogen was found to be non-metallic. The failure of solid hydrogen to become an alkali metal at the extreme pressures reported here has implications for our current theoretical understanding of the solid-state phase.
Item Type: | Article |
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Source: | Copyright of this article belongs to Nature Publishing Group. |
ID Code: | 113543 |
Deposited On: | 23 Apr 2018 10:57 |
Last Modified: | 23 Apr 2018 10:57 |
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