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I have heard that hydrogen under extremely high pressure and cold temperatures can enter a metallic phase (or just ungodly amounts of pressure and high temperature)

Can the inverse of this be applied to lithium? Under very low pressures (and low temperature I assume) can lithium enter a non-metallic solid phase?

Sidharth Ghoshal
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  • Yes, indeed the alkali metals can show this transition. Your query is answered here Hensel F, Slocombe DR, Edwards PP. 2015 On the occurrence of metallic character in the periodic table of the chemical elements. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 373: 20140477. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2014.0477 – AChem Aug 28 '21 at 04:21
  • Alternatively, you can check the phase diagram of lithium. – Nilay Ghosh Aug 28 '21 at 04:25

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Certainly! The properties of individual atoms differ from the bulk material. Alkali metals (all metals, really) no longer have metallic behavior such as electrical conductivity when highly dispersed. As you surmise, these effects are studied at quite low pressure (you can observe individual atoms in the container!) and at temperatures approaching 0K.

For example, lithium atoms can form a Pauli crystal, used to investigate quantum properties. A lithium quantum gas microscope uses mono-isotopic $\ce{^6Li}$ to investigate magnetic spin effects.

DrMoishe Pippik
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