2024-01-03 08:46:16
When entering various extremely high-pressure environments such as planets and stars, materials will change at the atomic level. For example, sodium changes from a shiny gray metal to a transparent glass-like insulator. Recently, a study uncovered the chemical bonds behind this special high-pressure phenomenon.
Scientists are answering a very simple question: Why does sodium become an insulator? How do elements and compounds behave under high pressure? Studying changes in material high pressure can help us better understand the internal structure of stars, how planetary magnetic fields are generated, and how stars and planets evolve.
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We used to think that materials turned into metals under high pressure conditions, such as the metallic hydrogen that makes up the core of Jupiter. However, the late physicist Neil Ashcroft’s paper 20 years ago found that some materials, such as sodium, actually turn into metals following being squeezed by high pressure. From a metal to a non-conducting insulator or semiconductor, they speculate that sodium’s core electrons interact with each other and with external valence electrons under extreme pressure.
Theoretically, the essence of high voltage is to squeeze sodium’s electrons out of the atoms into the space between atoms, called the electron compound state (electride state), causing sodium to change from a shiny metal to a transparent insulator, but new quantum chemical calculations It shows that the emergence of electronic compound states can be explained by chemical bonds, while electrons are still part of the atom.
The researchers note that high pressure causes electrons to occupy new orbitals within their respective atoms, which then overlap to form chemical bonds, leading to localized charge concentrations in interstitial regions.
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This research can help us understand how increasing pressure inside stars and planets rearranges the atomic structure of materials. Although it is difficult to conduct experiments that replicate the deep atmosphere of Jupiter, it can be done through calculations and, in some cases, high-tech lasers. Simulate these conditions.
(Source of first picture:Flickr/NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope CC BY 2.0）
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