{"id":91282,"date":"2019-05-24T16:43:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-24T23:43:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/lithium-doesnt-crack-under-pressure-it-transforms"},"modified":"2019-05-24T16:43:50","modified_gmt":"2019-05-24T23:43:50","slug":"lithium-doesnt-crack-under-pressure-it-transforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/lithium-doesnt-crack-under-pressure-it-transforms","title":{"rendered":"Lithium doesn\u2019t crack under pressure, it transforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/lithium-doesnt-crack-under-pressure-it-transforms3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Using cutting-edge theoretical calculations performed at NERSC, researchers at Berkeley Lab\u2019s Molecular Foundry have predicted fascinating new properties of lithium\u2014a light alkali metal that has intrigued scientists for two decades with its remarkable diversity of physical states at high pressures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder standard conditions, <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/lithium\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">lithium<\/a> is a simple metal that forms a textbook crystalline solid. However, scientists have shown that when you put a lithium crystal under <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/pressure\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">pressure<\/a>, the atomic structure changes and, somewhat counterintuitively, its conductivity drops, becoming less metallic,\u201d said Stephanie Mack, a graduate student research assistant at Berkeley Lab and first author of the study, published in <i>PNAS<\/i>. \u201cWe\u2019ve discovered it also becomes topological, with electronic properties similar to graphene.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Topological materials are a recently discovered class of solids that display exotic properties, such as having insulating interiors yet highly conductive surfaces, even when deformed. They are exciting for potential applications in next-generation electronics and quantum information science. According to coauthors Sin\u00e9ad Griffin and Jeff Neaton, lithium becomes topological at high but experimentally achievable pressures, comparable to one-quarter of the pressure at the Earth\u2019s center.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2019-05-lithium-doesnt-pressure.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;\">Read more<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using cutting-edge theoretical calculations performed at NERSC, researchers at Berkeley Lab\u2019s Molecular Foundry have predicted fascinating new properties of lithium\u2014a light alkali metal that has intrigued scientists for two decades with its remarkable diversity of physical states at high pressures. \u201cUnder standard conditions, lithium is a simple metal that forms a textbook crystalline solid. However, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1635,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-materials","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}