Been wondering, what properties would a mass of ionised hydrogen (H+) have? I’m guessing with a whole lot of protons floating around you’d get some odd effects in terms of thermal conductivity etc. Is such a substance even possible? I would imagine H+ would have a hard time forming a solid, or even a liquid.
Thanks,
Oli.
the charge repulsion would rule out a “proton” solid or liquid. It is possibly possible to generate large amounts of naked protons to make a proton gas, but containment would be tricky (such a large quantity of positive charge would cause leakage of electrons from every where - perhaps magnetic confinement?
Thats pretty much what I concluded. I wonder what the thermal properties of such a gas would be, considering the absence of electrons. Thanks for the reply BTW.
-Oli
Completely ionised gas is called plasma. It’s not something we handle every day, but it’s very common in the universe. This site has a good explanation of the basics.
The Sun is where you find a whole mess of them protons
I guess I misunderstood the OP. Plasma is a neutral cloud of electrons and nuclei, but you’re talking about protons only? If you have a cyclotron (accelerator) you can generate a proton beam. They can be focused and directed by magnetic fields. I don’t know of anyone creating a static cloud of protons.
Interesting stuff. That site mentions solid state plasmas and laboratory produced “plasma crystal”. I asssume they are referring to some kind of crystalline lattice. If so, how would such a lattice form, given the lack of covalent or ionic bonds between particles?
-Oli
Disregard that last post. I misunderstood the nature of said “plasma crystal”.
-Oli
Would a static cloud of protons be theoretically possible? If so, what would happen if you increased/decreased the temp/pressure of such a cloud? I imagine standard gas laws need not apply.
-Oli