Scientists have created Metal from Pure Water

 

What if you could make metal out of water?

As we know pure water itself is almost a perfect insulator. Water, which occurs naturally around the world, is a perfect conductor of electricity due to the impurities and minerals it contains. However, water becomes "metal" only at very high pressures.

Researchers have now found a way to metalize pure water with certain metals. This process was first tried by researchers in July 2021. But now, a group of researchers have documented the water-to-metal conversion and shared the video on YouTube. Conversion becomes possible only when pure water is brought into contact with an electron-sharing alkali metal.

In this case, the researchers used a combination alloy of sodium and potassium and added free-moving charged particles. To accomplish the conversion and create metal from water, the researchers exposed drops of the alloy to small amounts of water vapor in a vacuum chamber. The water vapor then began to condense on the surface, causing global expansion of the droplets.

Scientists have achieved what was thought impossible on Earth. However, this methodology has a problem, as Alkali metals usually react explosively with water, so mixing the two in a normal setup is very dangerous. So a vacuum like the one used in research experiments was needed to properly produce metals from water. And that's also why the researchers added water to the metal, not the other way around. By all appearances, the ability to accomplish such fascinating feats is another example of the scientific breakthroughs mankind has made in recent years.

Perhaps we can find another use for this metalized water in the future. Or at least, it may help us better understand the composition of planets like Jupiter, which are thought to harbor pure, metalized water.