Metallic hydrogen, once theory, becomes reality

Not sure what to make of this, big breakthrough or flash in the pan? Material Science has taken us from the Stone Age to the Nuclear Age, could this be a step towards the next level?

"This is the holy grail of high-pressure physics," Silvera said. "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."
To create it, Silvera and Dias squeezed a tiny hydrogen sample at 495 gigapascal, or more than 71.7 million pounds-per-square inch - greater than the pressure at the center of the Earth. At those 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 offers an important new 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 remains a diamond when that pressure and heat is removed."
Understanding whether the material is stable is important, Silvera said, because predictions suggest metallic hydrogen could act as a superconductor at room temperatures.
"That would be revolutionary," he said. "As much as 15 percent of energy is lost to dissipation during transmission, so if you could make wires from this material and use them in the electrical grid, it could change that story."

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a reply to: D8Tee

That is truly fascinating! Looking forward to more input from the community!

I read this and instantly thought " Atomic Batteries "

is this going to be the new lithium cell? Only one battery to rule them all?

I mean it's virtually more than a lifetime long battery, if I'm not mistaken?

Seems like it's able to make anti-gravity possible as well being a room temp superconductor

Oh man the part that really got me stoked is the part where they say the metallic hydrogen could be a room temperature super conductor that's one of the modern holy grails of technology. I wonder if it can only stay in one solid state or if it could be made into something like wires.
man so many breakthroughs in material science.

Until I made it to this point
" The diamonds were then coated with a thin layer of alumina to prevent the hydrogen from diffusing into their crystal structure and embrittling them."

I was beginning to think metallic Hydrogen could be found in the center of a collapsed star. But I was not taking into account that H and H fuses to He and a collapsed star has long ago consumed it's fuel.

This looks very interesting and can lead to bigger things.


Futurama there is a "pet" who poops a small ball of high energy material like this sounds like as it will release a lot of energy when it returns to a natural state making a perfect Rocket fuel it seems. Well i must say, I have got to love that!!

a reply to: D8Tee

I saw this as well but there is already an ongoing discussion in Science and Technology forum in this thread: www.abovetopsecret.com...

At that pressure it may exist in stars. It's also likely not stable at atmospheric pressure, so applications for this are limited to places where you can produce 72,000,000 psi.


Neat stuff, but ultimately useless outside of a well funded lab.

Lame. Announced last November.

This is ATS for pete's sake. Been talked about for years.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: D8Tee

Que the creation of the T-1000 i imagine.

On a more serious not the applications of this material are numerous to say the least, some of which have yet to be ever realized.

a reply to: D8Tee

There is deformation. Wouldn't that make it unstable?

a reply to: D8Tee

i think its pretty neat, but at same time a little confused. at first they talk like they have made it already, then when they got to talking about predictions kinda had me thinking they hadn't really made it.

originally posted by: luke1212
a reply to: D8Tee

i think its pretty neat, but at same time a little confused. at first they talk like they have made it already, then when they got to talking about predictions kinda had me thinking they hadn't really made it.

I'm going to assume it hasn't really been made yet. That being said, I'm very excited. I' read about metallic H when I was very young and have been fascinated with it ever since. 30 years later, this news.

Very cool


Edit: just re read the article...seems like they have mad it. Is that picture for real??
Damn...I wish my wife understood how unbelievably cool those tiny images are. Incredible!

Ah well... It was fun while it lasted, but seems like there is much doubt over this claim.

I'm erring on mistake myself. It just seems unlikely to me that this is real. I hope I'm wrong.

Txchnologist, an online magazine sponsored by General Electric, talked to team member and aerospace engineering PH.D. candidate Ross Cortez, he said "The fusion fuel we're focusing on is deuterium [a stable isotope of hydrogen] and Li6 [a stable isotope of the metal lithium] in a crystal structure."

"That's basically dilithium crystals we're using," he said.

Dilithium Crystals

Im quite suprised to read that they only went on the shiny appearance of their samples as proof that it was metallic. From what I read the scientists were more concerned with reporting their success than verifying their results.

Surely a electrical conductivity test would be the minimum they should have performed, yet they didn't.

www.popularmechanics.com...

Let's see what come of this. Either way, I learned that hydrogen goes through a black/dark phase when under immense pressure. Didn't know that.

I'm not sure why they think metallic H would survive at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, if it's only created under such extremes. Maybe some of you more knowledgeable guys can answer?

originally posted by: 3danimator2014
I'm not sure why they think metallic H would survive at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, if it's only created under such extremes. Maybe some of you more knowledgeable guys can answer?

Perhaps to demonstrate, I will take your statement and just change it a little.

I'm not sure why they think diamonds would survive at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, if they're only created under such extremes.

Obviously they do!

P

The failure happened on Saturday, February 11, when the team was preparing to pack up the sample and move it to the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago for further testing.
…
But further testing around a week ago caused the diamonds to break and the vice to fail, and the researchers haven't been able to find a trace of the metallic hydrogen since.

ScienceAlert.com, Feb. 23, 2017 - The World's Only Metallic Hydrogen Sample Has Disappeared.

NO!!!!!!

The sample has disappeared. It may have turned back to gas or fell on the floor. They don't know

(I did put the above out of order)