They have speculated that under certain pressure and temperature conditions hydrogen could be squeezed into a metal and possibly even a superconductor, but proving it experimentally has been difficult. High-pressure researchers, including Carnegie's Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, have now modeled three hydrogen-dense metal alloys and found there are pressure and temperature trends associated with the superconducting state -- a huge boost in the understanding of how this abundant material could be harnessed.
The study is published in the January 25, 2010, early, on-line edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
To read the rest of the article, click here.