Superatomic hydrogen: achieving effective aggregation of hydrogen atoms at pressures lower than that of metallic hydrogen

TL;DR

This paper proposes a model of superatomic hydrogen that achieves effective hydrogen atom aggregation at pressures significantly lower than those needed for metallic hydrogen, potentially advancing nuclear fusion research.

Contribution

It introduces a superatomic hydrogen model with ab initio calculations showing reduced pressure requirements for aggregation, offering a new pathway for controlled nuclear fusion.

Findings

Superatomic hydrogen forms at pressures two orders of magnitude lower than metallic hydrogen.

Electrons are delocalized in superatomic molecular orbitals, mimicking metallic hydrogen properties.

Potential applications in nuclear fusion are identified.

Abstract

Metal hydrogen exhibiting electron delocalization properties has been recognized as an important prospect for achieving controlled nuclear fusion, but the extreme pressure conditions required exceeding hundreds of GPa remain a daunting challenge. Here, we propose a model of superatomic hydrogen, aiming to reduce the pressure conditions required for the effective aggregation of elemental hydrogen atoms. High-precision ab initio calculations indicate that the pressure required to compress the H13 system with one central atom and 12 surrounding atoms into a superatomic state is approximately two orders of magnitude lower than that of metallic hydrogen. Atomic-level analyses reveal that in the superatomic state of compressed H13, the central H atom donates its electron, and all electrons are delocalized on the superatomic molecular orbitals, which conforms to properties of metallic hydrogen. Our discovery in principle opens up the prospect of superatomic hydrogen in areas such as nuclear fusion.