Washington
State University researchers have recently discovered a
compact, high-pressure,unknown
material with the ability to store large amounts of energy.
It is the most condensed and powerful form of energy that is
non-nuclear, and could create a whole new class of energetic
materials or fuels.
This
study, titled "Two-
and three-dimensional extended solids metalization of compressed
XeF2," has been published in the journal Nature
Chemistry and was
led by Washington State chemistry professor Choong-Shik Woo.
The
researchers created this super energy material by combining
fluoride, xenon, and pressures comparable to those found in the
center of the Earth. Xenon difluoride (XeF2), a white crystal that
etches silicon conductors, was put into a two-inch by three-inch
diameter device called a diamond anvil cell. This device embraces the
crystal, "squeezing" it between to diamond anvils and
produces high pressures within a small space.
The
material's molecules stayed far apart from one another under normal
atmospheric pressure, but as researchers increased
the pressure, these molecules came closer together resulting in a
two-dimensional semiconductor. At the two-dimensional level, the
material turns into a red, graphite-like structure that transforms
from XeF2 to XeF4. This occurs around 50 GPa, but when the
researchers increased the pressure to 70 GPa, XeF4 then transforms
into a three-dimensional, black structure resembling the metallic
XeF8 polyhedron.
But
the increase in pressure didn't stop there. Researchers continued
raising the pressure inside the diamond anvil cell until it reached
pressures seen only near the center of the Earth. This caused the
molecules to create "tightly-bound three-dimensional metallic
network structures," and inside these bonds stored the chemical
energy from the large amount of mechanical energy of compression.
There was a total of one million atmosphere's of stored energy.
What
this produces is an incredibly
powerful battery that is one step below the nuclear
energy category. This new material could be used as an
energy storing device, a superconductor and to super-oxidize
materials that can destroy chemical and biological agents.
