Does the discovery of a new physical state of matter
eventually prove to be useful for our day-to-day lives?
By: Ringo Bones
Even though the newly discovered physical state of matter
was jokingly called “gushers” when it first hit the press back in April 8, 2019,
but the study itself was supported by the European Research Council and the
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the work was carried out
in collaboration with scientists from Xi’an Jiantong University in China, the discovery
of a new physical state of matter now holds the promise of improving our daily
lives. Some say it could prove useful in designing more reliable folding-screen
smart-phones, etc. But what actually is this new state of matter?
This new state of physical matter allows atoms to exist as
both solid and liquid at the same time. In the past, atoms in physical
materials have been typically thought to be in one of the three physical states
– as either solid liquid or a gas. But researchers have discovered that some
elements can take on properties of two different states at once that pose a
complication to that view. Previously, scientists have not been sure whether
those intermediate states were their own distinct state of matter or if they
just represented a transition between the two.
This latest research finally managed to clear up that dispute
and point to the fact that it is a distinct state of matter now known as “the
chain melted state”. And now researchers hope that it can be further examined to
find more uses for the unexpected discovery. By subjecting the element
potassium to extreme environments – such as pushing it up against high
temperatures and pressures – were combined with powerful computer simulations
to allow scientists to study the unusual state of matter.
The potassium specimen showed parts of both liquid and solid
states. When subjected to those conditions, most of the elements formed into a
lattice structure of the kind that would be expected in a solid – but there was
also a second set of atoms that were in a liquid arrangement. The University of
Edinburgh scientists in the study found that more than half a dozen other
elements, including sodium and bismuth, were able to reach this state if they
were put in the right environments.
Dr. Andreas Hermann of the university’s School of Physics
and Astronomy led the study which is published in the journal Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences. He said: “Potassium is one of the simplest
metals that we know and yet if you squeeze it, it forms very complicated
structures. We have shown that this unusual but stable state is part solid and
part liquid. Recreating this unusual state in other materials could have all
kinds of applications.”
