09-20-2018, 09:35 PM
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-...mpty-space
Can you really create a chemical bond with one atom rather than the regular two? It sounds as though it would go against the laws of science – like a single hand clapping – but scientists think they may have found a way of doing it.
The approach centres around Rydberg atoms - they contain a single electron in a highly excited state. These atoms are usually seen as one half of special types of two-atom bonds, so-called trilobite molecules that are particularly large because of the spaced-out path of that busy electron.
The distant electron orbit that is key to large trilobite molecules might also enable Rydberg hydrogen atoms to 'bond' with a point in empty space, new research suggests.
That bond with literal nothingness would be extremely brief - but it could open up a new method of altering many chemical reactions.
"We predict it would live for several hundred microseconds, or even longer in a cold environment," one of the researchers, Matthew Eiles from Purdue University in Indiana, told Andy Coghlan at New Scientist.
Okay - so, these can only exist very briefly under very specific conditions, so you won't encounter one when walking down the street. But, it's freaky enough that they can exist at all!
I wonder whether any use will ever be found for this discovery?
Can you really create a chemical bond with one atom rather than the regular two? It sounds as though it would go against the laws of science – like a single hand clapping – but scientists think they may have found a way of doing it.
The approach centres around Rydberg atoms - they contain a single electron in a highly excited state. These atoms are usually seen as one half of special types of two-atom bonds, so-called trilobite molecules that are particularly large because of the spaced-out path of that busy electron.
The distant electron orbit that is key to large trilobite molecules might also enable Rydberg hydrogen atoms to 'bond' with a point in empty space, new research suggests.
That bond with literal nothingness would be extremely brief - but it could open up a new method of altering many chemical reactions.
"We predict it would live for several hundred microseconds, or even longer in a cold environment," one of the researchers, Matthew Eiles from Purdue University in Indiana, told Andy Coghlan at New Scientist.
Okay - so, these can only exist very briefly under very specific conditions, so you won't encounter one when walking down the street. But, it's freaky enough that they can exist at all!
I wonder whether any use will ever be found for this discovery?
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