Azerbaijan National Academy of Science

Since 1935, when it was first theorized, scientists have been trying to create metallic hydrogen, a new material with revolutionary potential applications. Now scientists from Harvard University published a paper in Science where they claim to have created it. If confirmed by further tests, the metallic hydrogen could become not only the rarest, but also one of the most valuable materials on Earth.

The scientists Isaac Silvera, Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences, and post-doctoral fellow Ranga Dias, believe that what they created via high-pressure physics could have use as a superconductor, able to conduct electricity without loss at room temperature. If a reasonable way to produce this material will be found, its uses can extend to the electrical grid, maglev trains and superfast space travel.

Isaac Silvera has been working on this problem for 45 years. What he and Ranga Dias did to produce their groundbreaking atomic metallic hydrogen was to compress hydrogen gas in a diamond anvil. They then solidified it at very low temperatures and kept slowly increasing the pressure on the anvil by turning the screw. As reported by Harvard Magazine, once they reached 4 million atmospheres, greater than the pressure at the center of Earth, the transparent hydrogen turned black. At 4.95 million atmospheres, it had become a metal, reflecting 90% of light the scientists shined at it.

"This is the holy grail of high-pressure physics," said Silvera. "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".

bigthink.com