Metallic Hydrogen :: essays research papers fc

henrythe approximately rife element in the universe.Normally it has been considered to remain anon-metal at any range of temperatures andpressures. That is, until now. Recently this year,hydrogen was changed into a metallic substance,which could stockpile electricity. An experimentconducted by William J. Nellis et al. at theLawrence Livermore National laboratoryoratoryaccomplished this feat. total heat was convertedfrom a non-metallic liquid, into a liquid metal. Thelikelihood that the almost abundant element in theuniverse could be converted into metallic pains atsufficient pressures was first theorized in 19351,but tangible march has eluded scientists in theintervening decades. "Metallization of hydrogenhas been the elusive Holy Grail in juicy-pressure natural philosophy for many years," said Bill Nellis, one of one-third Livermore researchers involved in theproject. "This is a significant contribution tocondensed matter physics because a pressure andtemperat ure that actually produce metallizationhave finally been discovered."2 Livermoreresearchers Sam Weir, Art Mitchell, and BillNellis used a two-stage gas shoot at Livermore tocreate enormous shock pressure on a targetcontaining liquid hydrogen cooled to 200 K (-4200 F). Sam Weir, Arthur Mitchell (a Labassociate), and Bill Nellis published the aftermaths oftheir experiments in the March 11 issue of forcibleReview Letters under the title "Metallization ofFluid Molecular henry at 140 GPa (1.4Mbar)." When asked about the significance of thework, Nellis had this to say "Hydrogen makes up90 percent of the universe. Jupiter is 90 percenthydrogen and contains most of the mass in ourplanetary system. Hydrogen is very meaning(a) to alot of work done at the Lab. Hydrogen in the random variableof deuterium and tritium isotopes is the fuel inlaser-fusion targets and how it behaves at hightemperatures and pressures is very important toNova and the National Ignition Facility.&qu ot3 Bymeasuring the electrical conductivity, they namethat metallization occurs at pressure equivalent to1.4 million times Earths atmospheric pressure, niner times the initial density of hydrogen, and at atemperature of 30000 K (50000 F). Because ofthe high temperature, the hydrogen was a liquid.The intense pressure lasted less than amicrosecond. visual evidence of a new phase ofhydrogen has been previously inform using anexperimental approach that involves crushingmicroscopic-sized samples of crystalline hydrogen among diamond anvils.4 However, metalliccharacter has non been established. Metalliccharacter is most directly established by electricalconductivity measurements which are not yetpossible in diamond anvil cells at these pressures.The Livermore teams results were strikebecause of their methods, the form of hydrogenused and the pressure needed to achieve the result(which was much lower than previously believed).Virtually all predictions surrounding metallichydrogen have been made for solid hydrogen at