Hydrogen turned into a metal?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hydrogen-turned-metal-change-world-205955795.html

If true, it could change the course of mankind.

Originally posted by whodey

If true, it could change the course of mankind.

But I think very unlikely to do so.
For starters, there would be huge safety issues that would get in the way.

They link says it could be used to create "batteries that never need charging" -err, unless they are saying it either can store an infinite amount of energy or it breaks the law of energy conservation so it never requires recharging, I guess they are talking about the non-rechargeable throw-away type of battery.

I hope to be proven wrong here but I think the idea that it could lead to room-temperature superconductivity is wishful thinking at this early stage.

Originally posted by humy
But I think very unlikely to do so.
For starters, there would be huge safety issues that would get in the way.

They link says it could be used to create "batteries that never need charging" -err, unless they are saying it either can store an infinite amount of energy or it breaks the law of energy conservation so it never requires recharging, I guess they a ...[text shortened]... hat it could lead to room-temperature superconductivity is wishful thinking at this early stage.

They claim to have actually produced metallic H at a pressure of near 500 Gigapascals or 70 million PSI. The thing not answered is if it is stable when pressure is removed or does it simply revert to H2 and I don't think they have measured conductivity as of yet.

Also going from a lab demonstration to industrial quantities, another story entirely. The size they are talking about are a square millimeter and a micron thick or so, not something usable as of yet.

Looks to me to be just wild fantasising by an uneducated reporter.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Looks to me to be just wild fantasising by an uneducated reporter.

This is from Phys.org a slightly higher rated science site:

https://phys.org/news/2017-01-metallic-hydrogen-theory-reality.html

Originally posted by twhitehead
Looks to me to be just wild fantasising by an uneducated reporter.

Kill joy! 😠

Originally posted by sonhouse
This is from Phys.org a slightly higher rated science site:

https://phys.org/news/2017-01-metallic-hydrogen-theory-reality.html

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."

Highly questionable. Surely it exists in the centres of stars?

Originally posted by twhitehead

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."

Highly questionable. Surely it exists in the centres of stars?

unlikely I think because I think it would be too hot for metallic hydrogen in any star.
However, the link's assertion that it "never existed before" may well still be wrong because what about around the center of gas giants?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen

"...Gas giants such as Jupiter (pictured above) and Saturn may contain large amounts of metallic hydrogen..."

Originally posted by humy
unlikely I think because I think it would be too hot for metallic hydrogen in any star.
However, the link's assertion that it "never existed before" may well still be wrong because what about around the center of gas giants?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen

"...Gas giants such as Jupiter (pictured above) and Saturn may contain large amounts of metallic hydrogen..."

yeah, he overstepped his bounds on that one. Still to produce metallic H is a real coup.

The only thing they don't know is if it is stable when the pressure is removed. They fear the whole thing will crack apart when pressure is removed and it has remained at that pressure for weeks and months to follow that till they get the courage to bite the bullet and release the pressure. It is amazing they produced a 71 million PSI pressure at all, much less couple that to metallic H. They had to use synthetic diamond and add alumina layers to keep the H from invading the diamond but they don't know if even the diamond can take releasing pressure, they think it might crack to pieces if that happens too. So they better have a VERY high speed camera recording it to see what happens. My guess is they will go down a few PSI at a time slowly, just a guess though.

Originally posted by sonhouse
The only thing they don't know is if it is stable when the pressure is removed. They fear the whole thing will crack apart when pressure is removed and it has remained at that pressure for weeks and months to follow that till they get the courage to bite the bullet and release the pressure.

I had been wondering why they didn't know, I assumed that if they had made it then released the pressure they would know immediately. Are they unable to repeat the experiment or something?

Originally posted by twhitehead
I had been wondering why they didn't know, I assumed that if they had made it then released the pressure they would know immediately. Are they unable to repeat the experiment or something?

The report I saw said they were afraid removing pressure would cause the diamonds to shatter, which would spoil any chance of further testing the H perhaps. Unless in that shattering they find bits of actual metallic H and find it did not revert. That would be a happy discovery kind of like the discovery of teflon, you know that story no doubt. Serendipity in science.