— Eva Zurek, teacher of chemistry, University at Buffalo College of Arts and SciencesNew Insights Into High-Pressure PhenomenaNow, a University at Buffalo-led study has revealed the chemical bonding behind this particular high-pressure phenomenon.While its been thought that high pressure essentially squeezes salts electrons out into the areas in between atoms, researchers quantum chemical estimations show that these electrons still very much belong to the surrounding atoms and are chemically bonded to each other.Implications for Understanding Celestial Bodies”Were responding to a really simple concern of why salt ends up being an insulator, however predicting how other elements and chemical compounds act at really high pressures will potentially provide insight into bigger-picture concerns,” says Eva Zurek, PhD, professor of chemistry in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the research study, which was released in Angewandte Chemie, a journal of the German Chemical Society. They thought that salts core electrons, believed to be inert, would engage with each other and the outer valence electrons when under extreme pressure. These orbitals then overlap with each other to form chemical bonds, causing localized charge concentrations in the interstitial regions.While previous research studies provided an user-friendly theory that high pressure squeezed electrons out of atoms, the new estimations found that the electrons are still part of surrounding atoms.
— Eva Zurek, professor of chemistry, University at Buffalo College of Arts and SciencesNew Insights Into High-Pressure PhenomenaNow, a University at Buffalo-led study has revealed the chemical bonding behind this specific high-pressure phenomenon.While its been theorized that high pressure basically squeezes sodiums electrons out into the spaces in between atoms, researchers quantum chemical computations show that these electrons still really much belong to the surrounding atoms and are chemically bonded to each other.Implications for Understanding Celestial Bodies”Were responding to a really easy question of why sodium becomes an insulator, however predicting how other components and chemical substances act at really high pressures will potentially give insight into bigger-picture questions,” says Eva Zurek, PhD, professor of chemistry in the UB College of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the study, which was published in Angewandte Chemie, a journal of the German Chemical Society. They thought that salts core electrons, believed to be inert, would interact with each other and the external valence electrons when under extreme pressure. These orbitals then overlap with each other to form chemical bonds, triggering localized charge concentrations in the interstitial regions.While previous studies provided an instinctive theory that high pressure squeezed electrons out of atoms, the brand-new calculations found that the electrons are still part of surrounding atoms.