In an unprecedented scientific achievement, an international research team succeeded in revealing the experimental liquid carbon structure for the first time, a rare form of appearing from this element, of great importance in modern technologies.
This advanced study using high -power laser was conducted in parallel with the high -precision X -ray laser in the city of Shinifeld, Germany, and published the study Recently in the scientific journal “Nature”.
Laser
To produce liquid carbon in the laboratory, the researchers used laser pressure technology, as strong collision waves that pass through a sample of glass carbon, which led to raising the temperature and pressure very quickly for a nanny period only, which is a very short period of time equal to part of a billion of a second.
During that moment, scientists have lined up a flash of high -precision X -rays on the sample, enabling them to capture the X -ray style, which shows the arrangement of atoms in the liquid state.
These measurements have shown that liquid carbon has a complex structure consisting of transient bonds between atoms, surrounding almost every carbon atom four neighboring atoms, which is similar to the installation of solid diamonds.
This distribution is contrary to the installation of other simple fluids, which usually contain more atoms of neighboring atoms up to 12.
This discovery provided an unprecedented opportunity to confirm the expectations of computer models based on quantum molecular dynamics, which have always tried to predict carbon behavior in extreme conditions.
In addition to knowing the structural structure of the liquid carbon, the research team was able to determine the fusion point accurately in a pressure range of approximately 160 Gapagal and a temperature exceeding 7000 km.
Like diamonds
The analysis has shown that the transition from the solid to the liquid is accompanied by a change in density in a rate that is accurately corresponding to theoretical predictions.
An in -depth analysis was also conducted to measure the distances between the atoms in the liquid, and accurate numbers were extracted representing the number of first and second atoms around each atom.
As it is clear from the experiment, liquid carbon is a rare case that is only available in heat conditions and severe pressure, such as those in the depths of giant planets such as Neptune and Uranus, where the detection of its structure can play a role in the interpretation of magnetic phenomena that are not interpreted in those planets.
Liquid carbon is also an important transitional condition for the manufacture of advanced carbon materials, including nanoparticles and nanoparticles, and it has vital applications in nuclear fusion experiences, where carbon is used as a buffer material.
The results also indicate that this new technique in studying materials under high pressure can be used in the future to analyze other fluid structure, consisting of light elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen that could not exist in our natural conditions. With the development of faster automatic control systems, research teams may be able to repeat such experiments in just seconds instead of hours.