Synthesis of Gold Hydride at High Pressure and High Temperature
Gold is an unreactive metal and its chemical interactions with hydrogen have only recently been explored. Here, we report the formation of gold hydride above 40 GPa and 2200 K in X-ray free electron laser heated diamond anvil cells using various hydrocarbons as hydrogen sources. Above 40 GPa, a hexagonal phase emerges close to the gold melting point, corresponding to a hydride with stoichiometry <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow><mml:msub><mml:mi>Au</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub> <mml:msub><mml:mi>H</mml:mi> <mml:mi>x</mml:mi></mml:msub> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation>${\rm Au}_2{\rm H}_{ x}$</mml:annotation></mml:semantics> </mml:math> , with <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:semantics><mml:mi>x</mml:mi> <mml:annotation>$x$</mml:annotation></mml:semantics> </mml:math> increasing from 0 to near 1 with pressure from 40 to 80 GPa. This is a high-temperature phase which reverts to face centered cubic gold on cooling to 295 K. Accompanying DFT-MD simulations are in excellent agreement with experiment and reveal the structure to consist of an hexagonal close packed gold lattice with atomic hydrogen disordered in the interstices. The hydrogen is superionic and exhibits high diffusivity through the crystalline gold lattice. Our results present the first solid-state binary compound of gold and hydrogen.
Authors
- N. J. Hartley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6268-2436)
- Maximilian Schörner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7925-8917)
- Maximilian Schulze (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7893-5920)
- Minxue Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3923-0677)
- Zuzana Konôpková
- Armin Bergermann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2849-1791)
- Torsten Laurus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2258-2123)
- Nicolas Jaisle
- C. Strohm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6384-0259)
- Gerd Steinle‐Neumann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7455-6149)
- Yu Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5174-9546)
- Eric Edmund (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4363-7434)
- Klaus Abraham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1895-9909)
- Bernhard Massani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5817-1780)
- R. Redmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3440-863X)
- Karen Appel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2902-2102)
- Rachel J. Husband (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7666-401X)
- S. H. Glenzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9112-0558)
- Mungo Frost (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6879-0422)
- Elena A. Bykova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8652-024X)
- Carsten Baehtz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1480-511X)
- Anna Celeste (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6728-8449)
- H. Graafsma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2304-667X)
- Zena Younes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9584-2132)
- R. S. McWilliams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3730-8661)
- Michał Andrzejewski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8997-8301)
- D. B. Brown (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3369-6898)
- Konstantin V. Glazyrin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5296-9265)
- A. F. Goncharov
Institutions
- Goethe University Frankfurt (DE)
- Planetary Science Institute (US)
- Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (DE)
- Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- University of Rostock (DE)
- University of Bayreuth (DE)
- European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (DE)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition
- Published
- 2025-08-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202505811
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.04
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- H2020 European Research Council