Thehydrogen, the most widespread gas in the Universe because the simplest (the union of a proton and an electron) and naturally insulating, can it under certain conditions change phase and take on a metallic and conductive character?
This prediction, issued several decades ago by the Nobel Prize winner Eugène Wigner, has been tested several times in experiments without being able to obtain the conditions for the phase transition.
CEA researchers believe they have achieved this by using the SOLEIL synchrotron and developing a diamond anvil press able to provide immense pressure from 4 million atmospheres.
It was also necessary to use a non-invasive observation method using infrared radiation to validate the phase change and obtain “signature of the metallic character of the pressure sample“and precisely determine under what conditions the transition to the metallic state occurs.
The results of this unique experiment in the world are published in the journal Nature and, if not yet capable of producing metallic hydrogen, it is the possibility of creating a room temperature superconductor emerging and reinventing the hydrogen storage which currently remains quite complex due to the very low temperatures required.
Creating an alloy integrating metallic hydrogen with other components would revolutionize this field and avenues are already being considered for super-hydrides.
In the meantime, this first observation is still only the initial stage of the study of the properties of hydrogen in metallic form and this should open up new avenues for research.
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