Nautilus recently had a great article about this state of water in the context of our solar systems ice giants Neptune and Uranus:
http://m.nautil.us/issue/102/hidden-truths/the-planets-with-...
I think the line that really stood out to me is ‘in most of the universe rivers of water and coal are rare and ice XVIII and diamonds are common’
It’s funny that scientists actually thought an ice nine type situation had a minuscule but non-zero chance of occurring when they set off the first nuclear bomb: the entire atmosphere would ignite.
This article claims that the substance conducts electricity through the movement of protons, but last I checked, protons have extremely strong bonds to the nucleus. Most substances conduct electrons. Anyone want to shed some light on whether the article's claim is actually true?
If so, are there other such substances that conduct electricity with protons? What is the electrical resistance of such substances? I feel it should be extremely high due to the increased mass of the protons.
First, this is an exotic material, so you should expect some weird stuff.
Second but probably more importantly you are correct that protons and neutrons are strongly bonded as part of a nucleus, what I think you are missing is that hydrogen molecules are essentially free-ranging protons and do not experience nuclear bonds with oxygen molecules as part of water, they are instead electrically bonded. It is not incorrect and even somewhat common to refer to hydrogen as being a proton, because typically it is. Sometimes you'll get heavier hydrogen with neutrons, but mostly you don't. Hydrogen also has a difficult time trapping and keeping electrons, so seeing it as a sort of 'hanger on' proton when its bonded is normal too.
I'm not aware of any thing that we humans use where a proton is the primary charge-carrier. I also won't speculate as to what sort of material properties they would have. If your thesis is 'protons as charge carriers is extremely unusual' then yes you would be correct. The reason that 'most substances conduct electrons' is because metals already conduct charge, which you are probably familiar with as the 'sea of electrons' theory, and semiconductors also use electrons or electron analogues as their charge carrier.
> protons have extremely strong bonds to the nucleus
Protons are chemical shorthand for the H+ atomic ion. They are bound to the fluffy outer electron shells of oxygen atoms in water.
> If so, are there other such substances that conduct electricity with protons?
This is basically how the inside of some fuel cells work (note that there is a counter-flow, which is the "useful electricity" of electrons that travels OUTSIDE the fuel cell, but inside of the fuel cell the electricity flow is via H+)
[+] [-] blululu|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lisper|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] generalizations|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hpb42|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ohuf|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] excalibur|4 years ago|reply
Definitely top 10
[+] [-] GREYWATER|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] throwaway81523|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pif|4 years ago|reply
Chemistry didn't change a lot in the last two years, thus such an article is as good as it had been published yesterday.
[+] [-] martincmartin|4 years ago|reply
Update: I originally wrote ice-9, which it turns out is ambiguous. I meant the one from Cat's Cradle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle
[+] [-] robbedpeter|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mint2|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] edgedetector|4 years ago|reply
If so, are there other such substances that conduct electricity with protons? What is the electrical resistance of such substances? I feel it should be extremely high due to the increased mass of the protons.
[+] [-] burnished|4 years ago|reply
Second but probably more importantly you are correct that protons and neutrons are strongly bonded as part of a nucleus, what I think you are missing is that hydrogen molecules are essentially free-ranging protons and do not experience nuclear bonds with oxygen molecules as part of water, they are instead electrically bonded. It is not incorrect and even somewhat common to refer to hydrogen as being a proton, because typically it is. Sometimes you'll get heavier hydrogen with neutrons, but mostly you don't. Hydrogen also has a difficult time trapping and keeping electrons, so seeing it as a sort of 'hanger on' proton when its bonded is normal too.
I'm not aware of any thing that we humans use where a proton is the primary charge-carrier. I also won't speculate as to what sort of material properties they would have. If your thesis is 'protons as charge carriers is extremely unusual' then yes you would be correct. The reason that 'most substances conduct electrons' is because metals already conduct charge, which you are probably familiar with as the 'sea of electrons' theory, and semiconductors also use electrons or electron analogues as their charge carrier.
Does that answer your questions/doubts?
[+] [-] Chris2048|4 years ago|reply
according to the article:
> The oxygen atoms form a cubic lattice, but the hydrogen atoms spill free, flowing like a liquid through the rigid cage of oxygens
Hydrogen consists of a nucleus of just one proton.
> I feel [electrical resistance] should be extremely high
electrical resistance measures the opposition to a flow of current, whereas electrical reactance measures the opposition to a change in current.
If you are thinking about momentum, do you mean reactance?
[+] [-] dnautics|4 years ago|reply
> protons have extremely strong bonds to the nucleus
Protons are chemical shorthand for the H+ atomic ion. They are bound to the fluffy outer electron shells of oxygen atoms in water.
> If so, are there other such substances that conduct electricity with protons?
This is basically how the inside of some fuel cells work (note that there is a counter-flow, which is the "useful electricity" of electrons that travels OUTSIDE the fuel cell, but inside of the fuel cell the electricity flow is via H+)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton-exchange_membrane_fuel_...