Spectroscopic evidence for a gold-coloured metallic water solution

Philip E. Mason, H. Christian Schewe, Tillmann Buttersack, Vojtech Kostal, Marco Vitek, Ryan S. McMullen, Hebatallah Ali, Florian Trinter, Chin Lee, Daniel M. Neumark, Stephan Thürmer, Robert Seidel, Bernd Winter, Stephen E. Bradforth and Pavel Jungwirth ()
Additional contact information
Philip E. Mason: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences
H. Christian Schewe: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences
Tillmann Buttersack: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences
Vojtech Kostal: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences
Marco Vitek: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences
Ryan S. McMullen: University of Southern California
Hebatallah Ali: Molecular Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Florian Trinter: Molecular Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Chin Lee: Molecular Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Daniel M. Neumark: University of California
Stephan Thürmer: Kyoto University
Robert Seidel: Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie
Bernd Winter: Molecular Physics, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
Stephen E. Bradforth: University of Southern California
Pavel Jungwirth: Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences

Nature, 2021, vol. 595, issue 7869, 673-676

Abstract: Abstract Insulating materials can in principle be made metallic by applying pressure. In the case of pure water, this is estimated1 to require a pressure of 48 megabar, which is beyond current experimental capabilities and may only exist in the interior of large planets or stars2–4. Indeed, recent estimates and experiments indicate that water at pressures accessible in the laboratory will at best be superionic with high protonic conductivity5, but not metallic with conductive electrons1. Here we show that a metallic water solution can be prepared by massive doping with electrons upon reacting water with alkali metals. Although analogous metallic solutions of liquid ammonia with high concentrations of solvated electrons have long been known and characterized6–9, the explosive interaction between alkali metals and water10,11 has so far only permitted the preparation of aqueous solutions with low, submetallic electron concentrations12–14. We found that the explosive behaviour of the water–alkali metal reaction can be suppressed by adsorbing water vapour at a low pressure of about 10−4 millibar onto liquid sodium–potassium alloy drops ejected into a vacuum chamber. This set-up leads to the formation of a transient gold-coloured layer of a metallic water solution covering the metal alloy drops. The metallic character of this layer, doped with around 5 × 1021 electrons per cubic centimetre, is confirmed using optical reflection and synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03646-5

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