Thread: Molecular Construction?

Why can't we take a hydrogen and simply add an electron to turn it into a helium?

Originally Posted by MrChillz

Why can't we take a hydrogen and simply add an electron to turn it into a helium?

H nucleus has 1 proton and either 0,1, or 2 neutrons.
He nucleus has 2 protons and either 1 or 2 neutrons.
Adding an electron has no effect on the H nucleus.

Thanks mathman. I guess it's a little more complicated than I thought haha

To expand an Mathmans answer a bit...

The nucleus is held together by the Nuclear Force. The binding energy of the nucleus of the atom is the energy required to break apart the nucleus and breaking apart the nucleus is Fission.

Adding a proton to one hydrogen atom would be Nuclear Fusion. This requires pushing two like charged particles (that will repel eachother) together with enough force to overcome the "Coulomb force" until they are close enough that the Nuclear Force overwhelms like charges, binding the two protons together in holy matrimony.

What you're asking about is how to make helium from hydrogen- Combing two Hydrogen atoms to make helium. Which our Sun just did.
It did it again.

The energy released is what causes the Sun to be all hot and well lit and such. Higher heavy elements, heavier than Iron, I think, require energy when nuclear fused, that is to say if the Sun was made of gold, it would be extracting energy from its surroundings to fuse two gold nuclei, which doesn't happen so forget that I brought it up. But I brought it up for a reason which was to point out that Fusion will result in energy being released for light elements but energy required for heavy elements whereas Fission will require energy for light elements and release energy for heavy elements - So do not forget that I brought it up.
Or... forget that I brought it up but remember what I said.

Helium has been 'created' in the 'lab' by fusing hydrogen.

So, yes, we can do that.

Others correct any mistakes I've made in this post- I didn't feel like pulling out references or relevant news articles on helium being created by taking two hydrogen atoms and making them miserable with rings and vows and whathaveyou. I'm really lazy today... I don't know what's wrong with me.

Because those poor molecular construction workers don't want the extra negativity. *drums*

We can't, but we can make it act as if it were. if I were for some reason be able to manage a hydrogen atom, which is neutral, and has 2 electrons around it. It would act as if it were Helium. These set-ups are however not very stable. The problem with your design, is that it is charged. It would act differently.