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  • Hydrogen/Oxygen alloy

    Water, the only indispensable ingredient of life, is just about the most versatile stuff on Earth. Depending on its temperature we can heat our homes with it, bathe in it, and even strap on skates and glide across it, to name only the most common of its many forms. When subjected to high pressures, however, water can take any of more than 15 different forms.


    Alloy of hydrogen and oxygen made from water


    Water, the only indispensable ingredient of life, is just about the most versatile stuff on Earth. Depending on its temperature we can heat our homes with it, bathe in it, and even strap on skates and glide across it, to name only the most common of its many forms. When subjected to high pressures, however, water can take any of more than 15 different forms.

    Researchers have now used x-rays to dissociate water at high pressure to form a solid mixture--an alloy--of molecular oxygen and molecular hydrogen. The work, by a multi-institutional team that includes Russell Hemley and Ho-kwang Mao of Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory, appears in the October 27 issue of Science.

    The researchers subjected a sample of water to extremely high pressures--about 170,000 times the pressure at sea level (17 Gigapascals)--using a diamond anvil, and zapped it with high-energy x-rays. Under these conditions, nearly all the water molecules split apart and re-formed into a solid alloy of O2 and H2. X-radiation proved to be the key to cleaving the O-H bonds in water; without it, the water remained in a high-pressure form of ice known as ice VII--one of at least 15 such variants of ice that exist under high pressure and variable temperature conditions.

    "We managed to hit on just the right level of x-ray energy input," explained Hemley. "Any higher, and the radiation tends to pass right through the sample. Any lower, and the radiation is largely absorbed by the diamonds in our pressure apparatus."

    This rather narrow range of energy requirement explains why, in hundreds of previous high-pressure x-ray experiments, the breakdown reaction had gone undiscovered: most such experiments tend to use more energetic x-rays. The experiments also required long, multiple-hour irradiation with x-rays; such long exposures had not been attempted before.

    The researchers put the alloy through its paces, subjecting it to a range of pressure, temperature, and bombardment with x-ray and laser radiation. As long as the sample remained under pressure equivalent to about 10,000 times atmospheric pressure at sea level (1 Gigapascal), it stood up to this punishment. Although the substance is clearly a crystalline solid, more experiments are needed to determine its precise crystal structure.

    "The new radiation chemistry at high pressure was surprising," said lead author Wendy Mao of Los Alamos National Laboratory. "The new alloy containing the incompatible oxygen and hydrogen molecules will be a highly energetic material."
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

  • #2
    If it has to be kept under that kind of pressure is it useful for anything? I don't even think the ocean floor comes close to this kind of pressure so it would have limited uses.

    Still very cool and very interesting
    Wikipedia and Google.... the needles to my tangent habit.
    ________________________________________________

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    • #3
      More comments;

      “This is brand new stuff and very exciting,” says physical chemist Richard Saykally of the University of California, Berkeley. Although researchers had thought for some time that water could form exotic compounds under extreme conditions, this is the first demonstration of such a material, he says. Saykally adds that the new compound might interest NASA and the U.S. Air Force, which are looking for more efficient oxydizers for solid fuel rockets, and this one “must have incredibly high energy” to exist.
      It's just possible that this compound could be stored in buckyballs, uncarbonated fulleroids or some other exotic container for such purposes.
      Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 27 October 2006, 17:19.
      Dr. Mordrid
      ----------------------------
      An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

      I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

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      • #4
        I'll nitpick here. An alloy is. by definition a mixture of metals and Oxford agrees with me on this. Whereas study of the periodic table suggests that hydrogen may become metallic under extreme conditions (confirmed experimentally under ephemeral conditions), nothing suggests that oxygen ever could be, as all the solids in VIB are not metallic. Also, there is no suggestion that this experiment took place at the low temperatures (<20 K) required to form metallic hydrogen. I therefore dispute whether these crystals are an alloy or even a compound. They are a mixture, especially as it states the elements are molecular and not monoatomic. Sounds to me like bad journalistic science.
        Brian (the devil incarnate)

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        • #5
          Oxford isn't the only dictionary in the world. They and American Heritage are using what is now considered an outdated definition.

          More recent version;

          Alloy: An alloy is a combination, either in solution or compound, of two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal, and where the resultant material has metallic properties. An alloy with two components is called a binary alloy; one with three is a ternary alloy; one with four is a quaternary alloy. The result is a metallic substance with properties different from those of its components.

          (variants used by Webster, Encarta, Wordnet, Wikipedia and many, many others )

          ex: http://www.engnetglobal.com/tips/glo...spx?word=Alloy
          EngNet Engineering Dictionary

          Alloy:

          A substance having metallic properties and composed of two or more chemical elements of which at least one is metal. Usually possesses qualities different from those of the components.
          Also; the core of Jupiter is likely metallic hydrogen due to the pressure, and no one presumes that it is in the least bit cryogenic given that Jupiter produces a s***load of heat

          As to if this material exhibits metallic qualities we can defer to the labs for that. Given its crystalline structure and metallic hydrogen in the mix it's more likely than not.
          Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 28 October 2006, 06:08.
          Dr. Mordrid
          ----------------------------
          An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

          I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

          Comment


          • #6
            The American Heritage Dictionary has always been crap hacked together by ninth rate scholars. Looking stuff up there reminds me of my subintelligent high school coach/teachers.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Dr Mordrid
              Oxford isn't the only dictionary in the world. They and American Heritage are using what is now considered an outdated definition.

              More recent version;

              Alloy: An alloy is a combination, either in solution or compound, of two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal, and where the resultant material has metallic properties. An alloy with two components is called a binary alloy; one with three is a ternary alloy; one with four is a quaternary alloy. The result is a metallic substance with properties different from those of its components.

              (variants used by Webster, Encarta, Wordnet, Wikipedia and many, many others )

              ex: http://www.engnetglobal.com/tips/glo...spx?word=Alloy


              Also; the core of Jupiter is likely metallic hydrogen due to the pressure, and no one presumes that it is in the least bit cryogenic given that Jupiter produces a s***load of heat

              As to if this material exhibits metallic qualities we can defer to the labs for that. Given its crystalline structure and metallic hydrogen in the mix it's more likely than not.
              OK, but Jupiter's hydrogen is molten, if it is metallic. I was considering solid hydrogen metal, as the original context was crystalline. I believe the melting point temperature for hydrogen metal at any pressure which man has achieved is ~14 K and the triple point (where the solid, liquid and gaseous phases are in equilibrium) is about 13 K at a pressure >7 MPa, which is one helluva lot.

              My guess is that it would not be metallic, in view of the fact that the weight of oxygen in water is ~8 times that of hydrogen (the implication in the article is that maintains roughly the same proportions as in water and that the oxygen is molecular).
              Brian (the devil incarnate)

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              • #8
                In '96 Livermore used a 60's vintage light gas gun to produce metallic hydrogen, though it happened by accident. Pressure: 1.4 MPa, at which time the band gap fell to almost zero.

                The key point is the radiation cleaving the water molecules and likely affecting the metallization. It's also possible that some form of metastable state has been achieved. If that's the case most normal arguements are not necessarily in play.

                Also; most recent data indicates that even more solid metallic hydrogen exists in Jupiter, Saturn and in the recently discovered extrasolar planets than previous theory indicated. MUCH more, mainly because it is now known it can be produced at lower pressures than previously thought.
                Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 28 October 2006, 16:05.
                Dr. Mordrid
                ----------------------------
                An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

                I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

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