Metallic Hydrogen Superconductor

Superconductors are materials that permit electricity to travel freely, without resistance, so they could dramatically improve the efficiency of power transmission technologies. Metallic hydrogen should be just such a superconductor.

Liquid metallic hydrogen is thought to exist in the high-gravity interiors of Jupiter and Saturn.
Scientists have predicted that electricity would flow, uninhibited, through a material made by compressing hydrogen into a metal. But so far, on Earth, researchers have been unable to use such compression techniques to squeeze hydrogen under high enough pressures to convert it into a metal. University at Buffalo chemists have now proposed an alternative solution for metallizing hydrogen by adding sodium to hydrogen which they think might make it possible to convert the compound into a superconducting metal under significantly lower pressures.

NaH₉, which does not occur naturally on Earth but is expected to be a stable compound, is predicted to become metallic at an experimentally achievable pressure of about 250 gigapascals, about 2.5 million times Earth's standard atmospheric pressure, but less than the pressure at Earth's core which is about 3.5 million atmospheres.

Reference
University at Buffalo (2011, June 13). Under pressure, sodium, hydrogen could undergo a metamorphosis, emerging as superconductor. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 15, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/06/110613162240.htm

Further Reading
Metals and Non-metals
Kinetic Theory of Gases

Study Questions

1. Draw up a table listing the properties of metals and non-metals.
2. In what ways is elemental hydrogen like a non-metal?
3. In what ways is elemental hydrogen like a metal?
4. Use the Kinetic Theory of Gases to explain what you expect to happen as elemental hydrogen at atmospheric pressure is subjected to increasing pressure.
5. Using the Kinetic Theory of Gases, describe two ways that scientists could, in theory, make solid hydrogen.
6. Using the Kinetic Theory of Gases, explain why hydrogen might exist as a liquid in the interior of the planet Jupiter.
   
7. If 250 gigapascals is about 2.5 million times Earth's standard atmospheric pressure, what does the prefix "giga" stand for?
   
8. Why do you think that chemists suggest adding sodium to hydrogen to create a solid material capable of conducting electricity?