Question by Idanre Magus: What applications of Atomic Hydrogen exist, apart from its use in welding?
The Oxy-Hydrogen flame burns at up to 2800 degrees Celsius, but the Atomic Hydrogen flame burns at up to 4000 degrees Centigrade. I first learned about this in a couple of old Chemistry textbooks I acquired. One was written in the 1930s to 1950s, while the other was published about 1980.
The 1940-ish book took up maybe three pages on Atomic Hydrogen, half of it describing the torch. (It was a small book.) The other (one of the co-authors had a name like “Lazlo,”) used half on one page, and half the other one to mention Atomic Hydrogen, much of that taken up with the diagram.
The brevity later stuck in my mind, when I learned that someone (Stanley Meyer) had found a way to use the Atomic Hydrogen phenomenon in an internal combustion engine. This inventor furthermore explained that the temperature of Atomic Hydrogen flame cannot be accounted for by conventional Scientific Law.
Atomic Hydrogen is formed by a similar process to that used to create Ozone from Oxygen- namely the electrical dissociation of the diatomic molecule. This is a simple and straightforward process, with nothing arcane about it. The other advantage of the use of Atomic Hydrogen is the creation of a reducing atmosphere around the work, so that it cannot oxidize and burn, even at that temperature.
The great limitation of the Steel Industry has been the availability of high-grade Carbon- that would usually be Coal. The Japanese were able to turn out the finest steel on earth in their backyards- that is, without sophisticated equipment such as the Bessemer Converter- because of the availability of Anthracite- which compares to Coal, pretty much as Coal compares to rolled up PlayBoy magazines.
If it turns out that there is an even more intense source of heat, which is non-polluting to boot, why is it not being used? It looks as if there has been some considerable effort to keep Engineering, Metallurgy, and other Science and technology students from even looking in this direction.
None of the “Advanced-Level” Chemistry students and graduates I know in the Nigerian University where I work knows anything about Atomic Hydrogen. This is an entire technology that has disappeared from our knowledge of Science and Technology, keeping us dependent on polluting heat-sources.
Best answer:
Answer by OzoneGuy
Used in processing semiconductors.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026271403001288
Used in making ammonia.
http://134.147.148.178/ispcdocs/ispc10/content/10/10-2.3-10.pdf
(… it is a big PDF)
There is also an “ozone form of hydrogen” should you need to reasearch it, but I suspect it is less reactive than bare protons.
What do you think? Answer below!