Special structures and properties of hydrogen nanowire confined in a single walled carbon nanotube at extreme high pressure

Extensive ab initio molecular dynamics simulations indicate that hydrogen can be confined in single walled carbon nanotubes to form high density and high pressure H2 molecular lattice, which has peculiar shell and axial structures depending on the density or pressure. The band gap of the confined H2 lattice is sensitive to the pressure. Heating the system at 2000K, the H2 lattice is firstly melted to form H2 molecular liquid, and then some of the H2 molecules dissociate accompanied by drastic molecular and atomic reactions, which have essential effect on the electronic structure of the hydrogen system. The liquid hydrogen system at 2000K is found to be a particular mixed liquid, which consists of H2 molecules, H atoms, and H-H-H trimers. The dissociated H atoms and the trimers in the liquid contribute resonance electron states at the Fermi energy to change the material properties substantially. Rapidly cooling the system from 2000K to 0.01 K, the mixed liquid is frozen to form a mixed solid melt with a clear trend of band gap closure. It indicates that this solid melt may become a superconducting nanowire when it is further compressed.