Idk how I got onto this but I was just googling shit and I was wondering how we are running out of helium. I read that helium is the one non-renuable element on this planet because it comes from the result of radioactive decay. But from my memory and the D- I got in highschool chemistry, helium is number 2 on the periodic table of elements and hydrogen is number 1, so why can’t we just take a fuck ton of hydrogen, do some chemistry shit and turn it into helium? I know it’s not that simple I just don’t understand why it wouldn’t work.
Edit: I get it, it’s nuclear fusion which is physics, not chemistry. My grades were so back in chemistry that I didn’t take physics. Thank you for explaining it to me!
In: Chemistry
So we can actually do that, but it wouldn’t be chemistry but rather nuclear physics.
No chemical reaction can change the number of protons in an atom, it can only join atoms together in a molecule or break down molecules.
To perform a transmutation between elements you need to use a particle accelerator or nuclear reactor to throw protons into a nucleus or use neutrons to knock protons out of a nucleus.
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