three states of matter

What you need to Google is phase diagrams and then look for the specific fluid you have in mind and then check the specific temperature and pressure. There is no simple answer to your question. In fact, your question is not fully correct since you can easily enough go from gas to solid without going through liquid. Even the WIKI article would be a good starting point.

Tom

TV.

Of course you are absolutely right, however I guess my question is :

If you apply "enough" pressure to a substance will it turn into a solid while under the applied pressure?

GF

mbaychoc.

The graphs indicate pessure /temperature for the states of various substances.

My interest is only in the absolute compression of a substance. after the heat of compession has dissipated. This would put it on the left of the tripple point

For example, HG 80, if compressed , to an absolute pressure, what ever that is? do we now have a liquid or a solid?

GF

left of the triple point will be only vapor phase and solid phase.

The phase diagram below is from the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_diagram. If you look at the diagram, you will see that that only gases below and to the left of their "Triple Point" can be converted to a solid by increasing the system pressure. That phase transition of gas-to-solid is known as "deposition", which is the opposite of the solid-to-gas phase transition known as "sublimation". In fact, the "deposition" phase transition is sometimes called "de-sublimation".

However, once the gas pressure and temperature conditions are such that the gas is to the right of the "Triple Point" (which is most often the case), then the gas cannot be converted to a solid no matter how much the pressure is raised.

Now your question is getting confused. First you were asking about fluids and/or gases. Now you are asking about "substances". Also, what do you mean by HG 80? Do you mean mercury (Hg) which is element number 80? If so, is it in the liquid phase or the gas phase to start with?

Again, to answer your own question, all you have to do is look at the pressure versus temperature phase diagram of mercury and select a starting point. I don't know how else to explain it to you.

Mbeychoc.

That is quite a book you authored.

I once read, that within every breath we take, there is at least one molecule of gas which was breathed in by Julius Ceaser, so this must also include Jesus Christ?

Could this be true?

GF

Indeed.

And every glass of water that is drunk <snip>........

I think heat may be more relevant.....

Mercury is a bit floppy for a metal.... but I expect on some very cold distant planet they make their cold fusion space craft out of it ('cos it's so nice and shiny) But they are in big trouble if they try to come here!

Ah, yes! The following springs to mind:

• At a cryogenics lecture at the Science Museum, the demonstrator made a hammer from mercury, which worked very well. Once the temperature began to rise, though, it wasn't quite so good.
• Iodine 'sublimes' from solid straight to gas when heated at ambient pressure.
• Carbon dioxide solidifies straight from the gas when cooled at ambient pressure. However, get it above 5 bar and the liquid will form in between.

The simple answer to the poster's question is to choose a material, then look at its phase diagram and all will be revealed.

Hello again,

You need a phase diagram of mercury. You will likely have to find that in a metals handbook like those published by ASM. Then you need to find the temperature you are at. Then follow the pressure up and see if you get a phase change from liquid to solid. I have no idea what shape the Hg phase diagram is, but I don't think it should be too weird; after all, you can just freeze Hg at about 40 below. Watch for whether the liquid-solid line slopes left or right above the triple point.

You missed one, there are four states of matter, gas, liquid, solid, and plasma. As for applying enough pressure, think Black Holes.

What state of matter is light?

Gas is pretty light! .

But seriously ....light is energy, radiation, particles or waves, but it isn't matter...but hey what's in a name...?

I also forgot superfluids.

I think what your are looking for is that a fluid will break into a gas at different pressure and the substances in the fluid will break out some in solids and some will turn back into a liquid. The more pressure applied the purer the gas or liquid will usually become.

Natural Gas is compressed a 1200 times into a liquid.

Can a fluid be compressed to form a solid? No.

bobguz

If matter can be frozen by the removal of heat,and I just assumed, gas was simply "matter beyond its boiling point" I just thought it might be possible, to create a super conductor, out of a suitable metal, by applying absolute pressure to it?

Some of the answeres here, suggest that a gas cannot be turned into a solid.

If "all "heat were removed from the gas would it still remain a gas?

If mercury was retained inside a sufficiently thich walled pipe and it was pumped up to a sufficiently high pressure, would it become a super conductor at ambient temperature?

It would be heated while being pumped of course.

GF

<If "all "heat were removed from the gas would it still remain a gas?>

Such a practice would require the achievement of 'absolute zero' temperature. No-one has gone there yet, so the question cannot be answered.

Many gases liquefy given low enough temperature; ammonia, helium, nitrogen and oxygen come to mind immediately.

At high enough temperature and pressure hydrogen goes 'metallic', according to those who understand Jupiter, Saturn and the stars.

Oh, yes. And when water turns to ice it expands, which is the opposite of what the original post speculates.

Is this going in the right direction or would a textbook on physical chemistry be a better source of information?

at standard pressure. water forms a 6 member ring at 4'C, the six member ring takes more volume than liquid state. That is why water expanse when it solidifies at standard pressure.

PDQ

The proof of this is that ice under the pressure if blades of an ice skate liquefy. When you ice skate you are really gliding on liquid water that freezes again when the pressure is removed.

Many kinds of superconductors of mercury have already been tried and experimented on. Supercooled as well as under pressure.

I think u can try reading up on some of that to begin with.

Mrinny,

Can you suggest, the titles, of any material, on pressure experiments regarding conductivity. Other substances than metals may become elctricallyconductive under these conditions.

GF

Hi gfwhell

I do not really know what kind of a metal or substance you are looking at. There are other substances that attain superconductive states based on their properties. I know of a few ceramic compounds, semiconductos as well as organic molecules.

My research restricts me to look into organic superconductors but i think you will find enuf links in wiki as well as physics journals. If you still have no luck i can mail u a few links regarding the mercury experiments.

It is absense of the heat energy, at the proper density for solid that you are looking for. The properities of the matter are gas, liquid, solid, and the difference is the exitation level of the molecules. Lower the distance between the molecules (pressure) and bleed away the excess energy released (heat) and you have the desired result of the different state of matter in a different relative pressure, but you have to keep that pressure to keep that state of matter at that level.

Is the core at the center of the Earth a liquid or a solid? What is the calculated pressure at the core? One can change a liquid to a solid with temperature change, but most liquids aren't solidified solely with pressure in a practical application of pressure. There is speculation that the core of planets like Saturn and Jupiter may have metallic hydrogen cores. The core at the center of a star is certainly an extremely viscous "liquid", but the temperature and extremely rapid motion of atomic particles, atomic nuclei likely prohibits solidification. Jorrie, any thoughts re what's at the core of a massive black hole? Solid Quark mass? That would be the ultimate "pressure" test.

Cardio.

I like the black hole example, I don't think there are any fluid gasses in there and wonder if the whole hole is super conductive?

The theory's and answerers to my original question are manifold. It now sounds feasible, to construct a super conductor, in side a strong pipe, containing a cocktail of water and Mercury, Then refrigerating it to below 32 deg F which turns the water to ice, and by expansion, exerting absolute pressure within, thus squeezing the conductive molecules into uniform alignment for the free passage of electrons.

But wait, the pressure of the loaded ice skate melts the ice? but that will probably be a mere surface anomaly. Napolian used anti personel mines consisting of cast iron balls filled with water and sealed with a tapered pin. which were scatterd around on cold nights, thats probably why he lost the war.

This discussion was a mind opener.

GF

Hi again gfwhell

There is a specific thermodynamic relationship between temp n pressure depending on the type of element or molecule you are looking at. Alloys are more complicated. Just pressure will not work in some cases and in others it may not be feasible at all.

You will have to look at phase diagrams as well as solve equations for each case.

Meanwhile

Just thought you might be interested

http://people.ccmr.cornell.edu/%7Ejcdavis/stm/

http://www.science24.com/paper/49

http://wuphys.wustl.edu/~jss/nato2revfinal.pdf

PS: Oh yeah and superfluids are also prepared under high pressure that behave as superconductors. You may look this up on wiki too. I dunno if that falls in your area of interest.

I believe that the general answer to your question from a practical point is that numerous materials can exhibit all three phases (or sometimes more), but I'm not quite sure that really addresses the deeper point of whether it would be possible to form a solid from any material even SC gases. If enough pressure could be generated at the atomic level to force the molecules together, would they not form a solid?

AD

I think this is how "fat man " and "big boy" worked. material was compressed with the highest pressure available at the time, compressing very excited and unstable materials into each other.

GF

No, fatman and bigboy both used sub-critical masses of Uranium separated by a safe distance that use explosives to move the sub-critical masses together rapidly to produce super-critical masses and start the chain reaction to release a massive amount of energy.

Yes! That's how http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene was discovered! When molecules were compressed closely together, there was a drop in pressure and a solid was obtained.

There was a chemical change, as well as a physical one.

Yes, and Ethylene was the fuel of the explosion in the Phillips Chemical Plant which exploded in 1089 and gave me those many years of work to help rebuild and make safer. This was the work which lead to my "principle" title, too. Not only did I have to know the ASME, Section VIII codes, OSHA Reputations and other safety rules, I had to know how to apply them and to sit in on and contribute to many a hazard review. In addition, I had the responsibility to write both the engineering and construction scope of work for each project assigned to me. This lead to my instruction to the engineering crew I lead; "It is our duty to translate engineering data into a language which the craftsman can understand.". Add, also, that the craftsman does not have a slot for a floppy in his forehead. All instructions and drawing must be clear enough for him to read while working in the natural light, wind, and dirt of field conditions. Thus, you look at the final copies you are giving him to verify they are readable. The craftsman spends a lifetime learning his trade so let us give him the respect he is due.

<the craftsman does not have a slot for a floppy in his forehead>

Wow! That's good. That's very good!

I have heard that frozen CO2 or dry ice goes from solid to gas skipping the liquid phase or is it just not visible? Liquid CO2 is easily seen when it is released from a tank and when it is directed into a styrofoam cooler it will freeze into solid without adding any pressure. Mind you it was under pressure in the storage tank.

Plasma torches are really neat. We used top cut 3/4 thick sheets of pure copper with them. It left a nice cut too. Welding with plasma is very neat also.

Just sharing some experience. Its nice to remember some of the past work even though it was not always enjoyable.

CO₂ does not go into the liquid state at atmospheric pressure. It will, however, go into laiquid state at elevated pressure so long is the temperature does not reach critical. The fact that CO₂ does sublime at atmospheric pressure is why it is called dry ice. Lower the pressure sufficiently and water ice will sublime, too. In fact, at atmospheric pressure and below freezing temperatures, water ice does sublime slowly. You might say the ice evaporates.