Why is Helium so difficult to synthesize?
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When you synthesize helium it releases dangerous amounts of energy. Hydrogen bombs are basically helium synthesizers.
When you synthesize helium it releases dangerous amounts of energy. Hydrogen bombs are basically helium synthesizers.
Well, there‘s nothing to take it from.
If you wand hyrogenyou can electrolize water, since water contains hydrogen. If you iron you can refine iron ore. But what will you take helium from?
It is a noble gas, meaning it does not react with things, so there is no molecule that contains helium. (They only exist in extreme conditions). So now you inly have three options:
– find a gas mixture that contains helium and filter it out. Natural gas can contain between 0.01 and 7% helium for example
– radioactive decay. You may have heard alpha radiation before. In essence, that just means a radioactive element is shooting out helium cores. Pretty much all helium on earth comes from radioactive decay producing helium as a side product. Mostly it comes from uranium and thorium.
– fusion. This is by far the hardest. If you can‘t find an element, make it. Theres only two practical ways of making elements. We‘ve already talked about splitting other elements, and the alternative to that is mergkng. If you fuse two hydrogen you get helium, but this is a really expensive and experimental method. (It does work tho, and we have done it already)
Well, there‘s nothing to take it from.
If you wand hyrogenyou can electrolize water, since water contains hydrogen. If you iron you can refine iron ore. But what will you take helium from?
It is a noble gas, meaning it does not react with things, so there is no molecule that contains helium. (They only exist in extreme conditions). So now you inly have three options:
– find a gas mixture that contains helium and filter it out. Natural gas can contain between 0.01 and 7% helium for example
– radioactive decay. You may have heard alpha radiation before. In essence, that just means a radioactive element is shooting out helium cores. Pretty much all helium on earth comes from radioactive decay producing helium as a side product. Mostly it comes from uranium and thorium.
– fusion. This is by far the hardest. If you can‘t find an element, make it. Theres only two practical ways of making elements. We‘ve already talked about splitting other elements, and the alternative to that is mergkng. If you fuse two hydrogen you get helium, but this is a really expensive and experimental method. (It does work tho, and we have done it already)
It’s made through nuclear fusion. Very inefficient t to make large amounts. It’s also very rare element.
It’s made through nuclear fusion. Very inefficient t to make large amounts. It’s also very rare element.
It’s made through nuclear fusion. Very inefficient t to make large amounts. It’s also very rare element.
Well, there‘s nothing to take it from.
If you wand hyrogenyou can electrolize water, since water contains hydrogen. If you iron you can refine iron ore. But what will you take helium from?
It is a noble gas, meaning it does not react with things, so there is no molecule that contains helium. (They only exist in extreme conditions). So now you inly have three options:
– find a gas mixture that contains helium and filter it out. Natural gas can contain between 0.01 and 7% helium for example
– radioactive decay. You may have heard alpha radiation before. In essence, that just means a radioactive element is shooting out helium cores. Pretty much all helium on earth comes from radioactive decay producing helium as a side product. Mostly it comes from uranium and thorium.
– fusion. This is by far the hardest. If you can‘t find an element, make it. Theres only two practical ways of making elements. We‘ve already talked about splitting other elements, and the alternative to that is mergkng. If you fuse two hydrogen you get helium, but this is a really expensive and experimental method. (It does work tho, and we have done it already)
Two ways to make an element.
**Chemical** reaction: Turning a molecule that includes your element into a different molecule that includes your element. Electrolysis turns water (H20) into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (02). Helium doesn’t naturally bond (noble gas) with anything and is already in it’s pure base form. So you can’t harvest it from chemical reactions.
**Nuclear** reaction: Adding or removing protons to an atom’s nucleus to change it from one element to another. Iron (26 protons) is the mid point for nuclear reactions. It’s the most stable and given enough time and energy, everything turns into iron. The sun being a good example.
Elements with more protons, like gold (79) or silver (47) or lead (82), all release energy when **losing** protons and going back requires proportionally more energy the farther you go from iron. This isn’t done in a single step, but the concept is the same. It works the same way but in reverse the further away you get with smaller elements too. Aluminum (13) or Titanium (22) both release energy when **gaining** protons up to iron and require proportionally more energy to lose protons and get smaller.
Helium is (2). Only thing smaller than helium is hydrogen (1). So as far as nuclear reactions go, it is the most difficult element (requires the most energy) to synthesis. Other than hydrogen, which as discussed above, is abundant and can be harvested readily with a chemical reactions.
That’s why Helium is rare. We can’t harvest it chemically because it doesn’t bond with things in nature. And it’s the farthest from Iron for nuclear reactions.
**TL;DR** – Helium is the smallest noble gas. Making it both impossible to harvest chemically and the most difficult to manufacture with nuclear reactions.
Two ways to make an element.
**Chemical** reaction: Turning a molecule that includes your element into a different molecule that includes your element. Electrolysis turns water (H20) into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (02). Helium doesn’t naturally bond (noble gas) with anything and is already in it’s pure base form. So you can’t harvest it from chemical reactions.
**Nuclear** reaction: Adding or removing protons to an atom’s nucleus to change it from one element to another. Iron (26 protons) is the mid point for nuclear reactions. It’s the most stable and given enough time and energy, everything turns into iron. The sun being a good example.
Elements with more protons, like gold (79) or silver (47) or lead (82), all release energy when **losing** protons and going back requires proportionally more energy the farther you go from iron. This isn’t done in a single step, but the concept is the same. It works the same way but in reverse the further away you get with smaller elements too. Aluminum (13) or Titanium (22) both release energy when **gaining** protons up to iron and require proportionally more energy to lose protons and get smaller.
Helium is (2). Only thing smaller than helium is hydrogen (1). So as far as nuclear reactions go, it is the most difficult element (requires the most energy) to synthesis. Other than hydrogen, which as discussed above, is abundant and can be harvested readily with a chemical reactions.
That’s why Helium is rare. We can’t harvest it chemically because it doesn’t bond with things in nature. And it’s the farthest from Iron for nuclear reactions.
**TL;DR** – Helium is the smallest noble gas. Making it both impossible to harvest chemically and the most difficult to manufacture with nuclear reactions.
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