14 DAY TRIAL // Super atoms are bundles of several tens of individual atoms in a vapor state that have a collective chemical behavior similar to that of a single atom of the same element used to create the super atom. Super atoms have been proven to exist for the first time back in 2005 when a team of researchers created a super atom out of aluminum. Delft University of Technology researchers now claim to have recently created a similar structure by using silver.
By heating up silver metal to a temperature of about 900 degrees Celsius, TU Delft researchers created silver vapor consisting of individual atoms that bundled together in small numbers, 9, 13, and 55 for example, and co-existed into an energetically stable phase, which made them behave like a single atom. Professor Andreas Schmidt-Ott and Christian Peineke of the TU Delft believe that collecting these super atoms and using them for chemical experiments may be of scientific importance and could eventually spawn a brand new branch in the area of chemistry.
The aluminum super atoms created in 2005 at the Virginia Commonwealth University consisted of clusters counting 13, 23 and 37 individual atoms that seem to be surrounded by the collection of electrons of all the atoms, in a similar outer layer as that of all elements in the periodic table. Creating a super atom is somehow like adding a new element to the periodic table, thus giving it a third dimension.
"The chemical properties of the super atoms that have been identified up until now are very similar to those of elements in the periodic table, because their outer layers are much the same. However, we may yet discover super atoms with a different outer layer, giving us another set of completely new properties," said Professor Schmidt-Ott.
And to top it all off, the newly created chemical species may also present unique magnetic, optical and electrical properties that could eventually allow them to form more stable crystals and different types of solids. They could just as well be the next type of catalyzer in the fuel used in internal combustion engines.
Considering that they were not the first ones to introduce the super atoms, the discovery of the TU Delft team is really nothing out of the ordinary. However, it must be credited as the first team to isolate a very pure state of the silver super atom, therefore predicting a possible use in chemical experiments.