Researchers explain odd oxygen bonding under pressure
Monday, August 4, 2008 - 16:42
in Physics & Chemistry
Oxygen, the third most abundant element in the cosmos and essential to life on Earth, changes its forms dramatically under pressure transforming to a solid with spectacular colors. Eventually it becomes metallic and a superconductor. The underlying mechanism for these remarkable phenomena has been fascinating to scientists for decades; especially the origin of the recently discovered molecular cluster (O2)4 in the dense solid, red oxygen phase.