Researchers Use Extreme Pressure to Forge New Chemical Bonds

As far as chemical bonds go, those between some elements are like that of peanut butter and jelly, while others are similar to bonds between oil and water. Researchers can use high pressure to overcome this elemental antipathy. For the very first time scientists have forged an iron-bismuth bond using pressure equal to that present in the core of Mars. This bond can be used to develop new superconducting and magnetic materials. The details of this endeavor have been reported in ACS Central Science.

The first step in many of the reaction is the mixing of the “ingredients,” which is no mean task when it comes to iron and bismuth. Even at a very high temperature of 3000ºF, which can melt both metals, only 0.16% of bismuth will dissolve in molten iron. Researcher Danna Freedman and her team suggested extremely high pressure as a means of making both metals conducive to melting. The team found a new material known as FeBi2 at approximately 30GPa. They also found that the material could be maintained even when the pressure is lowered to 3GPa, but when brought back to the atmospheric pressure of earth (nearly 30,000 times lower), the material goes back to its constituent components. Freedman stated that the team is working on means to scale up the synthesis. This will enable them to see if this unique material will meet their prediction of being magnetic and superconductive, and also find means of making it stable.