Study suggests helium plays a ‘nanny’ role in…

Study suggests helium plays a ‘nanny’ role in forming stable chemical compounds under high pressure

Helium, the second lightest element in the universe, has a variety of uses, from keeping balloons afloat to cooling superconducting magnets.

It is also a noble gas—so labeled because it was long believed to be “too aloof” to react with the other elements on the periodic table.

Now, however, a team of scientists led by California State University, Northridge (CSUN) chemistry professor Maosheng Miao, and including University at Buffalo chemistry professor Eva Zurek, has provided a theoretical explanation of how helium may be capable of forming stable solid compounds—the myriad combinations of chemical elements that create all kinds of materials.

The research also suggests that the gas—whose supply on Earth has been decreasing—may be found in the Earth’s mantle, a place once considered unlikely since there was no known chemistry to keep helium there.

The new study, “Reactivity of He with ionic compounds under high pressure,” was published on March 5 in Nature Communications. The work was inspired by a 2017 study in which a different research team reported synthesizing a stable compound from helium and sodium, an element in table salt, under high pressure.

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