Exploring Technology in a Wizard World
Chapter 520 - 518: The Pinnacle of Technology—Metallic Hydrogen!

Chapter 520: Chapter 518: The Pinnacle of Technology—Metallic Hydrogen!

Richard closed the door and walked back to the courtyard.

However, after returning to the courtyard, he did not immediately enter his room. Instead, he continued to gaze at the night sky, deep in thought about many matters:

To be honest, since leaving White Stone City for the North, he had considered the possibility of encountering members of the Mysterious Organization again. But he hadn’t expected to run into them so soon, experiencing his first indirect contact in Florence.

In light of this, to prevent any more severe situations from occurring, he must be prepared.

Having Mu’en secretly investigate was one countermeasure.

Furthermore, the secret exploration of the Black Spirit Empire was something he couldn’t give up on.

On one hand, he had already invested too much into it. To let go now would mean a high sunk cost.

On the other hand, he had gained benefits far beyond his expectations from the secrets of the Black Spirit Empire—Eden, Energy Storage Magic Wand, Magic Lord of Wind, Shadow Cloak, Magic Eye of Gaze, improvements on the fourth-state shield, enhancements of Eden’s electrical system, the Judgement Feather given by Clown, and so on.

Based on the information he had collected so far, he could infer that there was an astounding truth behind the secrets of the Black Spirit Empire.

If he could truly unravel it, even if he couldn’t gain a significant increase in strength, it would greatly help him understand the unknown history of the East Coast, which would aid in achieving his ultimate goal—to determine the true face of the world.

Of course, the exploration of the Black Spirit Empire’s secrets was not his sole focus. He would devote a part of his energy to it, but wouldn’t let it completely dominate his actions.

Currently, more important than exploring the secrets of the Black Spirit Empire was to continue researching Magic Materials, achieve certain results, and make use of them on himself. This way, should he indeed encounter the Mysterious Organization members again, he would have more confidence.

Thinking thus, Richard made his way toward the room.

...

Eden.

Richard entered the place and headed straight to the research room in the Mechanical Processing Sector.

"Da da da..."

Striding quickly into the research room, Richard saw a grey-white Metallic Ball the size of a fist on the table, the result of several days of research—a special alloy obtained by mixing Metal Palladium with various metals in different ratios.

Since it was the product of the one hundred and seventh attempt, it was named Alloy 107.

This Alloy 107 had shown significant improvements over the initial research products and had better effects. To use an analogy, if success was like boiling water, then previously the water was heated to halfway, but now it was heated to about eighty percent, even nearing ninety percent of the way there.

But no matter how close, the water hadn’t boiled.

No boiling meant no success. It was just like the water in a steam engine—only boiling water could produce violent steam to drive the engine, while water that was just short of boiling was useless.

Therefore, the urgent problem was how to further improve Alloy 107, turning it into the successful Magic Material he envisioned.

"It seems I need to continue adjusting the content of Metal Palladium," Richard said as he walked to a corner of the research room. He opened an iron box there, took out a piece of shiny Metal Palladium, and while caressing its surface, he organized his thoughts seriously, "Besides Metal Palladium, the content of the other Platinum Group Metals also needs to be adjusted, as they are all quite special..."

After speaking, Richard got busy, conducting experiments with a large number of Platinum Group Metals.

The reason he insisted on dealing with Platinum Group Metals was the result of his deep and careful deliberation.

The Magic Material he was currently attempting to create was mentioned in the Island Treasure records. According to the scroll, this Magic Material had a special effect on gases. If produced, it would have many uses.

To emphasize, it had a special effect on gases!

As far as he knew, many metals could have special effects on gases, but Platinum Group Metals were among the most unique.

Platinum group metals mostly have the capability to absorb gases, especially metal palladium, which has the strongest absorption ability. At room temperature, one volume of palladium can absorb 900 to 2800 volumes of hydrogen gas.

to 2800 volumes?

This is an exaggerated figure, equivalent to compressing several thousand times the volume of hydrogen into a small piece of palladium.

What if using some methods, this multiplicity could be increased even further? For example, under the common effect of other platinum group metals, magic runes, and free energy elements, letting a small piece of palladium continue to absorb more hydrogen, what would happen, what effect would it give?

This made Richard couldn’t help but think of something, something that remains at the pinnacle of modern Earth’s technology, something that only exists in theory and has yet to be surmounted—metallic hydrogen.

Metallic hydrogen!

What is the substance with the highest release of chemical energy on Earth?

Explosives?

TNT? Hexogen? Taian? Octogen? CL-20? DNAF?

Or perhaps the peak of explosives, the five imidazole anion salt—the original version of magic salt?

None of them!

Above explosives, there’s an overpowering presence, the peak of peaks, apart from a nuclear explosion, no other substance can compete—that is—metallic hydrogen!

The term metallic hydrogen is easy to understand, just like ice cubes.

Pressurizing and cooling water vapor turns it into water, and further pressurizing and cooling water turns it into ice. Similarly, compressing and cooling hydrogen gas turns it into liquid hydrogen, and further compressing and cooling liquid hydrogen turns it into metallic hydrogen.

Theoretically, that’s the case, but in practice, it’s almost impossible.

Metallic hydrogen is, under the current scientific theoretical framework, the highest energy storage material. When it unleashes its power, the energy released is several orders of magnitude greater than that of ordinary explosives—this is almost like the difference between battle-hardened elite soldiers and crying infants.

If successful synthesis of metallic hydrogen could be achieved, it would revolutionize the whole world, such as reforming the entire power system, significantly improving the fuel efficiency of transport rockets, heralding the space age, developing fourth-generation nuclear weapons... and so on.

However, the synthesis of such metallic hydrogen is extremely challenging, and Earth’s scientists have been stumped for nearly a century.

Over 80 years ago, some of Earth’s scientists predicted that metallic hydrogen could be synthesized under the condition of 25GPa.

25GPa, if converted, is 25,000,000KPa, with the standard atmospheric pressure at 101.325kPa, meaning it’s roughly 250,000 times the atmospheric pressure.

This is already an exaggerated number, and as technology continues to progress and research deepens, the conditions required for hydrogen to transition into a metal don’t decline but rather increase, step by step, to as much as 5 million times the atmospheric pressure.

million times the atmospheric pressure!

To generate such immense pressure, Earth’s scientists once developed the ultimate black tech product—the Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC)—comprised of a pair of pure diamond anvils and sealing gaskets.

Because the contact surface between the two diamonds is small and the diamond is hard enough, extreme compression can be applied to achieve the desired super high-pressure conditions.

But even with the black tech of the diamond anvil cell, metallic hydrogen has not been produced, because it’s not only about meeting the pressure requirement; there are many other stringent conditions—at least on Earth.

What about the current wizard world?

With the effect of spells, with the many superheavy nuclear stability island elements (free energy elements) that don’t exist on Earth, is it still that challenging?

Or perhaps, would it be a little simpler?

Could it be that the ingredients listed on scrolls are similar in nature to metallic hydrogen? Or compared to metallic hydrogen, are they even more powerful and possess some effects that don’t exist on Earth?

Richard wondered, as he manipulated the controls.