Hydrogen is a more promiscuous element than chemists have appreciated: it can form up to six strong chemical bonds in some solids, American researchers report.
The finding is of more than academic interest, say Anderson Janotti and Chris Van de Walle, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, US. They suggest that multi-bonding hydrogen atoms are acting as impurities, or dopants, in materials like zinc oxide, increasing their electrical conductivity. Controlling this effect could boost the cause of zinc oxide in future technologies, like solid-state lighting or flat panel display screens.
