Here ’s a popular high schooling chemistry fact : atomic number 2 atom do n’t interact with other atoms to create compounds . Well , that fact might need some reevaluating .
An international team of scientists call up they ’ve create a stable helium chemical compound , meaning one composed of both helium and sodium atoms together . The discovery would be wild not only because of the way it goes against some of our basic assumptions of chemistry , but would also help scientist better understand the manner atoms playact in the gamey - pressure kernel of gas elephantine satellite .
“ alchemy change when you use high atmospheric pressure , and this can be achieved inside our Earth and on different planets like Saturn , ” study co - source Ivan Popov , a doctoral pupil at the Utah State University , recite Gizmodo . “ But this , ” chemistry involving He , “ is a book of account changer . ” Other noble gas , like xenon and argon , have previously been express to bond with atomic number 12 under eminent pressure .
So , chemistry example : molecule are positively commove nuclei surrounded by negatively charge negatron . The more positive protons in the lens nucleus , the more electrons the atom can hold onto . The electrons are sorted into layers , telephone shells . particle bond by sharing electrons in their outermost shells , but if that shell is full , they unremarkably wo n’t bond . imposing gasses like He or Ne are molecule with full outer shell , so bonding with them is like trying to hold hands with someone already toting a pair of bowling ball . That ’s why the newfangled study ’s result is so interesting , if it holds up .
“ Ad hoc , it sounds pretty violent , ” Reinhard Boehler , a research scientist at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington , DC told me from his railcar when I line the study ’s results to him .
In their study , the researchers loaded helium gas and Na watch crystal into a bodily cavity between a pair of diamonds , and squeezed the atoms at super - high pressures . The resulting compound was a solid arrangement of alternating sodium and helium atoms in a regular hexahedron material body , with electrons shared between them . “ It ’s not a real bond paper ” in the common sense of the ionic and covalent bond you learned about in interpersonal chemistry , explained Popov . “ But [ the helium ] does stabilise the structure . If you take those atomic number 2 particle away , the structure will not be stable . ”
If this go familiar , it may be because last hebdomad , research worker denote they ’d produced metallic hydrogen using a very standardised high - pressure data-based setup — though other scientist had a lot of doubts about that event . This time around , at least one scientist found the results more convincing . “ This is much sounder science , ” Henry Rzepa , a professor at Imperial College , London , who was initially questioning when I told him about the unexampled subject area , said . “ This atomic number 2 compound is a discovery . ” He pointed out that , of form , other scientists would need to complete similar experiments so as to verify whether a helium chemical compound had actually been found .
Rzepa further observe that this compound is n’t your received assortment of stick to element you learned about in chemical science family , but an “ electride . ” Such molecules consist of electron dispersed within a crystal structure , but the social system itself is fairly mysterious to us . “ We have long suspected that a quite dissimilar chemistry , control by rather unlike if not very different normal , must exist under utmost weather condition such as extremist in high spirits pressures , ” he said . “ This [ Na - atomic number 2 chemical compound ] offers a tantalising glance into this unexampled frontier of chemistry . ”
That means these compounds wo n’t have much usance on Earth , and can only exist under unusual weather condition like those at the center of gas giant major planet like Jupiter and Saturn . The He - sodium compound could therefore give us insight into what interpersonal chemistry might be like inside other planets , the paper ’s author write , since those gas giants have quite a little of helium .
So , at least one brace of eyes thought this wild compound really could subsist . We will update the post if we hear any take issue opinions .
Correction : This article has been edited to slump Ivan Popov ’s university tie-up .
[ Nature Chemistry ]
ChemistrydiscoveriesPhysicsScience
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