ICMCS Seminar - Solubility in Ouzo and Metallic Hydrogen
ICMCS Seminar - Solubility in Ouzo and Metallic Hydrogen
- Event time: 4:00pm until 5:00pm
- Event date: 19th May 2025
- Speaker: Professor Graeme Ackland (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
- Location: James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) 2511 James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
Solubility in Ouzo and Metallic Hydrogen
Wikipedia, in one of its less helpful moments, defines solubility as “the ability of a substance, the solute, to form a solution”. What this actually means in practice is whether a system separates into two (or more) regions with different compositions. For example, the cream on the top of milk, or iron in the Earth’s core. In equilibrium thermodynamics, the system does this to minimise its free energy, with entropy encouraging mixing, gravity encouraging separation and chemistry doing whatever chemistry does.
One unspoken issue, which doesn’t play nicely with the maths, is what comprises a “substance”. e.g. is carbon soluble in water. Not as a diamond, but yes if the carbon is in glucose (C6H12O6). ? Try dropping an engagement ring and a spoon of sugar in your tea.
In this talk I will discuss how complex objects can form in solution: in ouzo such objects are at the micron scale, whereas in metallic hydrogen atomic impurities acquire a halo of hydrogen forming composite “hypermolecules” such as CH6, H3O and CH4OH which make chemists sad. The consequence of this is that your ouzo goes cloudy, and astronomers can’t find the core of Jupiter.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81211470751
Meeting ID: 812 1147 0751
Passcode: ICMCS123
About Condensed Matter lunchtime seminars
This is a weekly series of informal talks given primarily by members of the institute of condensed matter and complex systems, but is also open to members of other groups and external visitors. The aim of the series is to promote discussion and learning of various topics at a level suitable to the broad background of the group. Everyone is welcome to attend..