Helium Explained

Helium (from Greek, Modern (1453-);: ἥλιος|[[helios]]|lit=sun) is a chemical element; it has symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is the lowest among all the elements, and it does not have a melting point at standard pressures. It is the second-lightest and second most abundant element in the observable universe, after hydrogen. It is present at about 24% of the total elemental mass, which is more than 12 times the mass of all the heavier elements combined. Its abundance is similar to this in both the Sun and Jupiter, because of the very high nuclear binding energy (per nucleon) of helium-4, with respect to the next three elements after helium. This helium-4 binding energy also accounts for why it is a product of both nuclear fusion and radioactive decay. The most common isotope of helium in the universe is helium-4, the vast majority of which was formed during the Big Bang. Large amounts of new helium are created by nuclear fusion of hydrogen in stars.

Helium was first detected as an unknown, yellow spectral line signature in sunlight during a solar eclipse in 1868 by Georges Rayet,[1] Captain C. T. Haig,[2] Norman R. Pogson,[3] and Lieutenant John Herschel,[4] and was subsequently confirmed by French astronomer Jules Janssen.[5] Janssen is often jointly credited with detecting the element, along with Norman Lockyer. Janssen recorded the helium spectral line during the solar eclipse of 1868, while Lockyer observed it from Britain. However, only Lockyer proposed that the line was due to a new element, which he named after the Sun. The formal discovery of the element was made in 1895 by chemists Sir William Ramsay, Per Teodor Cleve, and Nils Abraham Langlet, who found helium emanating from the uranium ore cleveite, which is now not regarded as a separate mineral species, but as a variety of uraninite.[6] [7] In 1903, large reserves of helium were found in natural gas fields in parts of the United States, by far the largest supplier of the gas today.

Liquid helium is used in cryogenics (its largest single use, consuming about a quarter of production), and in the cooling of superconducting magnets, with its main commercial application in MRI scanners. Helium's other industrial uses—as a pressurizing and purge gas, as a protective atmosphere for arc welding, and in processes such as growing crystals to make silicon wafers—account for half of the gas produced. A small but well-known use is as a lifting gas in balloons and airships.[8] As with any gas whose density differs from that of air, inhaling a small volume of helium temporarily changes the timbre and quality of the human voice. In scientific research, the behavior of the two fluid phases of helium-4 (helium I and helium II) is important to researchers studying quantum mechanics (in particular the property of superfluidity) and to those looking at the phenomena, such as superconductivity, produced in matter near absolute zero.

On Earth, it is relatively rare—5.2 ppm by volume in the atmosphere. Most terrestrial helium present today is created by the natural radioactive decay of heavy radioactive elements (thorium and uranium, although there are other examples), as the alpha particles emitted by such decays consist of helium-4 nuclei. This radiogenic helium is trapped with natural gas in concentrations as great as 7% by volume, from which it is extracted commercially by a low-temperature separation process called fractional distillation. Terrestrial helium is a non-renewable resource because once released into the atmosphere, it promptly escapes into space. Its supply is thought to be rapidly diminishing.[9] [10] However, some studies suggest that helium produced deep in the Earth by radioactive decay can collect in natural gas reserves in larger-than-expected quantities,[11] in some cases having been released by volcanic activity.[12]

History

Scientific discoveries

The first evidence of helium was observed on August 18, 1868, as a bright yellow line with a wavelength of 587.49 nanometers in the spectrum of the chromosphere of the Sun. The line was detected by French astronomer Jules Janssen during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India.[13] This line was initially assumed to be sodium. On October 20 of the same year, English astronomer Norman Lockyer observed a yellow line in the solar spectrum, which he named the D3 because it was near the known D1 and D2 Fraunhofer lines of sodium.[14] [15] He concluded that it was caused by an element in the Sun unknown on Earth. Lockyer named the element with the Greek word for the Sun, ἥλιος (helios).[16] It is sometimes said that English chemist Edward Frankland was also involved in the naming, but this is unlikely as he doubted the existence of this new element. The ending "-ium" is unusual, as it normally applies only to metallic elements; probably Lockyer, being an astronomer, was unaware of the chemical conventions.[17] In 1881, Italian physicist Luigi Palmieri detected helium on Earth for the first time through its D3 spectral line, when he analyzed a material that had been sublimated during a recent eruption of Mount Vesuvius.[18]

On March 26, 1895, Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay isolated helium on Earth by treating the mineral cleveite (a variety of uraninite with at least 10% rare-earth elements) with mineral acids. Ramsay was looking for argon but, after separating nitrogen and oxygen from the gas, liberated by sulfuric acid, he noticed a bright yellow line that matched the D3 line observed in the spectrum of the Sun.[19] [20] [21] These samples were identified as helium by Lockyer and British physicist William Crookes.[22] [23] It was independently isolated from cleveite in the same year by chemists Per Teodor Cleve and Abraham Langlet in Uppsala, Sweden, who collected enough of the gas to accurately determine its atomic weight.[24] [25] [26] Helium was also isolated by American geochemist William Francis Hillebrand prior to Ramsay's discovery, when he noticed unusual spectral lines while testing a sample of the mineral uraninite. Hillebrand, however, attributed the lines to nitrogen.[27] His letter of congratulations to Ramsay offers an interesting case of discovery, and near-discovery, in science.[28]

In 1907, Ernest Rutherford and Thomas Royds demonstrated that alpha particles are helium nuclei by allowing the particles to penetrate the thin glass wall of an evacuated tube, then creating a discharge in the tube, to study the spectrum of the new gas inside.[29] In 1908, helium was first liquefied by Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes by cooling the gas to less than 5K.[30] [31] He tried to solidify it by further reducing the temperature but failed, because helium does not solidify at atmospheric pressure. Onnes' student Willem Hendrik Keesom was eventually able to solidify 1 cm3 of helium in 1926 by applying additional external pressure.[32] [33]

In 1913, Niels Bohr published his "trilogy"[34] [35] on atomic structure that included a reconsideration of the Pickering–Fowler series as central evidence in support of his model of the atom.[36] [37] This series is named for Edward Charles Pickering, who in 1896 published observations of previously unknown lines in the spectrum of the star ζ Puppis[38] (these are now known to occur with Wolf–Rayet and other hot stars).[39] Pickering attributed the observation (lines at 4551, 5411, and 10123 Å) to a new form of hydrogen with half-integer transition levels.[40] [41] In 1912, Alfred Fowler[42] managed to produce similar lines from a hydrogen-helium mixture, and supported Pickering's conclusion as to their origin.[43] Bohr's model does not allow for half-integer transitions (nor does quantum mechanics) and Bohr concluded that Pickering and Fowler were wrong, and instead assigned these spectral lines to ionised helium, He+.[44] Fowler was initially skeptical[45] but was ultimately convinced[46] that Bohr was correct, and by 1915 "spectroscopists had transferred [the Pickering–Fowler series] definitively [from hydrogen] to helium."[47] Bohr's theoretical work on the Pickering series had demonstrated the need for "a re-examination of problems that seemed already to have been solved within classical theories" and provided important confirmation for his atomic theory.

In 1938, Russian physicist Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa discovered that helium-4 has almost no viscosity at temperatures near absolute zero, a phenomenon now called superfluidity.[48] This phenomenon is related to Bose–Einstein condensation. In 1972, the same phenomenon was observed in helium-3, but at temperatures much closer to absolute zero, by American physicists Douglas D. Osheroff, David M. Lee, and Robert C. Richardson. The phenomenon in helium-3 is thought to be related to pairing of helium-3 fermions to make bosons, in analogy to Cooper pairs of electrons producing superconductivity.[49]

In 1961, Vignos and Fairbank reported the existence of a different phase of solid helium-4, designated the gamma-phase. It exists for a narrow range of pressure between 1.45 and 1.78 K.[50]

Notes and References

  1. Rayet, G. (1868) "Analyse spectral des protubérances observées, pendant l'éclipse totale de Soleil visible le 18 août 1868, à la presqu'île de Malacca" (Spectral analysis of the protuberances observed during the total solar eclipse, seen on 18 August 1868, from the Malacca peninsula), Comptes rendus ..., 67 : 757–759. From p. 758: " ... je vis immédiatement une série de neuf lignes brillantes qui ... me semblent devoir être assimilées aux lignes principales du spectre solaire, B, D, E, b, une ligne inconnue, F, et deux lignes du groupe G." (... I saw immediately a series of nine bright lines that ... seemed to me should be classed as the principal lines of the solar spectrum, B, D, E, b, an unknown line, F, and two lines of the group G.)
  2. Captain C. T. Haig (1868) "Account of spectroscopic observations of the eclipse of the sun, August 18th, 1868" Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 17 : 74–80. From p. 74: "I may state at once that I observed the spectra of two red flames close to each other, and in their spectra two broad bright bands quite sharply defined, one rose-madder and the other light golden."
  3. Pogson filed his observations of the 1868 eclipse with the local Indian government, but his report wasn't published. (Biman B. Nath, The Story of Helium and the Birth of Astrophysics (New York, New York: Springer, 2013), p. 8.) Nevertheless, Lockyer quoted from his report. From p. 320 of Lockyer, J. Norman (1896) "The story of helium. Prologue," Nature, 53 : 319–322 : "Pogson, in referring to the eclipse of 1868, said that the yellow line was "at D, or near D." "
  4. Lieutenant John Herschel (1868) "Account of the solar eclipse of 1868, as seen at Jamkandi in the Bombay Presidency," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, 17 : 104–120. From p. 113: As the moment of the total solar eclipse approached, " ... I recorded an increasing brilliancy in the spectrum in the neighborhood of D, so great in fact as to prevent any measurement of that line till an opportune cloud moderated the light. I am not prepared to offer any explanation of this." From p. 117: "I also consider that there can be no question that the ORANGE LINE was identical with D, so far as the capacity of the instrument to establish any such identity is concerned."
  5. In his initial report to the French Academy of Sciences about the 1868 eclipse, Janssen made no mention of a yellow line in the solar spectrum. See:

    However, subsequently, in an unpublished letter of 19 December 1868 to Charles Sainte-Claire Deville, Janssen asked Deville to inform the French Academy of Sciences that : "Several observers have claimed the bright D line as forming part of the spectrum of the prominences on 18 August. The bright yellow line did indeed lie very close to D, but the light was more refrangible [i.e., of shorter wavelength] than those of the D lines. My subsequent studies of the Sun have shown the accuracy of what I state here." (See: (Launay, 2012), p. 45.)

  6. Web site: Cleveite . Mindat.org . 14 February 2020.
  7. Web site: Uraninite . Mindat.org . 14 February 2020.
  8. Web site: Helium: Up, Up and Away? . Melinda . Rose . Photonics Spectra . October 2008 . 27 February 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100822172353/http://www.photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=35225 . 22 August 2010 . live . For a more authoritative but older 1996 pie chart showing U.S. helium use by sector, showing much the same result, see the chart reproduced in "Applications" section of this article.
  9. News: Connor . Steve . Why the world is running out of helium . The Independent . 23 August 2010 . 16 September 2013 . London . https://web.archive.org/web/20130927231657/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/why-the-world-is-running-out-of-helium-2059357.html . 27 September 2013 . live .
  10. Web site: Ethan Siegel . Ethan . Siegel . Why the World Will Run Out of Helium . Starts with a Bang . Scienceblogs.com . 12 December 2012 . 16 September 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130914120934/http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2012/12/12/why-the-world-will-run-out-of-helium/ . 14 September 2013 . live .
  11. Web site: We may not be running out of helium after all. Szondy. David. www.gizmag.com. 1 April 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160325044958/http://www.gizmag.com/helium-source-natural-gas-fields/39038/. 25 March 2016. live. 24 August 2015.
  12. News: Huge helium gas find in east Africa averts medical shortage. The Guardian. Ian. Sample. 28 June 2016. 29 June 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160629022834/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/28/huge-helium-gas-tanzania-east-africa-averts-medical-shortage. 29 June 2016. live.
  13. French astronomers in India during the 17th – 19th centuries . Journal of the British Astronomical Association. 101. 2. 95–100. 1991JBAA..101...95K. Kochhar, R. K.. 1991.
  14. Lockyer . J. N. . Notice of an observation of the spectrum of a solar prominence . Proceedings of the Royal Society of London . 17 . October 1868 . 91–92 . 112357 . 3 June 2018 . 1868RSPS...17...91L . 10.1098/rspl.1868.0011. 163097539 .
  15. Book: Hampel, Clifford A. . The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements . 256–268 . New York . 978-0-442-15598-8 . 1968 . Van Nostrand Reinhold.
  16. Thomson . William . August 3, 1871 . 4 . 261–278 [268] . 10.1038/004261a0 . Inaugural Address of Sir William Thomson . Nature . Frankland and Lockyer find the yellow prominences to give a very decided bright line not far from D, but hitherto not identified with any terrestrial flame. It seems to indicate a new substance, which they propose to call Helium . 1871Natur...4..261. . 92 . 2070380 . February 22, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161202011154/https://books.google.com/books?id=IogCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA268 . December 2, 2016 . live .
  17. Jensen . William B. . 2004 . 81 . 7 . 944 . 10.1021/ed081p944 . Why Helium ends in "-ium" . Journal of Chemical Education. 2004JChEd..81..944J .
  18. Palmieri . Luigi . La riga dell'Helium apparsa in una recente sublimazione vesuviana . The line of helium appeared in a recently sublimated material [from Mt.] Vesuvius. . Rendiconto dell'Accademia delle Scienze Fisiche e Matematiche (Naples, Italy) . 20 . 1881 . 223 . 1 May 2017 . Raccolsi alcun tempo fa una sostanza amorfa di consistenza butirracea e di colore giallo sbiadato sublimata sull'orlo di una fumarola prossima alla bocca di eruzione. Saggiata questa sublimazione allo spettroscopio, ho ravvisato le righe del sodio e del potassio ed una lineare ben distinta che corrisponde esattamente alla D3 che è quella dell'Helium. Do per ora il semplice annunzio del fatto, proponendomi di ritornare sopra questo argomento, dopo di aver sottoposta la sublimazione ad una analisi chimica. (I collected some time ago an amorphous substance having a buttery consistency and a faded yellow color which had sublimated on the rim of a fumarole near the mouth of the eruption. Having analyzed this sublimated substance with a spectroscope, I recognized the lines of sodium and potassium and a very distinct linear line which corresponds exactly to D3, which is that of helium. For the present, I'm making a mere announcement of the fact, proposing to return to this subject after having subjected the sublimate to a chemical analysis.) . https://web.archive.org/web/20180901111504/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnl7mr;view=1up;seq=251 . 1 September 2018 . live .
  19. On a Gas Showing the Spectrum of Helium, the Reputed Cause of D3, One of the Lines in the Coronal Spectrum. Preliminary Note. Ramsay . William. William Ramsay. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 58. 347–352. 65–67. 1895. 10.1098/rspl.1895.0006. 1895RSPS...58...65R. 129872109. free.
  20. Helium, a Gaseous Constituent of Certain Minerals. Part I. Ramsay . William. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 58. 347–352. 81–89. 1895 . 10.1098/rspl.1895.0010. 1895RSPS...58...80R. free.
  21. Helium, a Gaseous Constituent of Certain Minerals. Part II – Density. Ramsay . William. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 59. 1. 325–330. 1895 . 10.1098/rspl.1895.0097. 1895RSPS...59..325R. 96589261.
  22. On the new gas obtained from uraninite. Preliminary note, part II. Lockyer, J. Norman. Norman Lockyer. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. 58. 347–352. 67–70. 1895. 10.1098/rspl.1895.0008. free.
  23. See:
  24. See:
  25. Das Atomgewicht des Heliums. The atomic weight of helium. Langlet, N. A.. Zeitschrift für Anorganische Chemie. 10. 1. 289–292. 1895. 10.1002/zaac.18950100130. de.
  26. Book: Weaver . E.R. . Circular of the Bureau of Standards No. 81: Bibliography of Scientific Literature Relating to Helium . 1919 . 6 . U.S. Government Printing Office . Washington, D.C., USA .
  27. Hillebrand (1890) "On the occurrence of nitrogen in uraninite and on the composition of uraninite in general," Bulletin of the U.S. Geological Survey, no. 78, pp. 43–79.
  28. Book: Munday, Pat. Pat Munday. 1999. Biographical entry for W.F. Hillebrand (1853–1925), geochemist and U.S. Bureau of Standards administrator in American National Biography. John A. Garraty. Mark C. Carnes. 10–11. Oxford University Press. 808–9; 227–8. American National Biography.
  29. 10.1080/14786440808636511. XXIV.Spectrum of the radium emanation. Philosophical Magazine. series 6. 16. 92. 313–317. 1908. Rutherford. E.. Royds. T..
  30. Onnes, H. Kamerlingh (1908) "The liquefaction of helium," Communications from the Physical Laboratory at the University of Leiden, 9 (108) : 1–23.
  31. Little cup of Helium, big Science . van Delft, Dirk . Physics Today . 36–42 . 2008 . 2008-07-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20080625064354/http://www-lorentz.leidenuniv.nl/history/cold/VanDelftHKO_PT.pdf . June 25, 2008. dead. 2008PhT....61c..36V. 61. 10.1063/1.2897948. 3.
  32. See:
    • Preliminary notice: Keesom, W. H. (17 July 1926) Letters to the Editor: "Solidification of helium," Nature, 118 : 81.
    • Preliminary notice: Keesom, W. H. (1926) "L'hélium solidifié," Comptes rendus ..., 183 : 26.
    • Keesom, W. H. (1926) "Solid Helium," Communications from the Physical Laboratory at the University of Leiden, 17 (184) .
  33. News: Coldest Cold. Time Inc.. 1929-06-10. 2008-07-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20081206015739/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,751945,00.html. 2008-12-06. dead.
  34. Book: Hoyer, Ulrich. Constitution of Atoms and Molecules. 103–316 (esp. pp. 116–122). Niels Bohr – Collected Works: Volume 2 – Work on Atomic Physics (1912–1917). https://books.google.com/books?id=zGczmJjSO6kC&pg=PA117. Ulrich. Hoyer. North Holland Publishing Company. Amsterdam. 1981. 978-0720418002.
  35. Book: Kennedy, P. J.. 1985. A Short Biography. French. A. P.. Kennedy. P. J.. Niels Bohr: A Centenary Volume. 3–15. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-62415-3. registration. https://archive.org/details/nielsbohrcentena00bohr.
  36. Bohr. N.. Niels Bohr. 1913. On the constitution of atoms and molecules, part I. Philosophical Magazine. 26. 151. 1–25. 10.1080/14786441308634955. 2017-12-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20190404184145/http://web.ihep.su/dbserv/compas/src/bohr13/eng.pdf. 2019-04-04. live. 1913PMag...26....1B.
    Bohr. N.. Niels Bohr. 1913. On the constitution of atoms and molecules, part II: Systems Containing Only a Single Nucleus. Philosophical Magazine. 26. 153. 476–502. 10.1080/14786441308634993. 2017-12-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20171215041355/http://web.ihep.su/dbserv/compas/src/bohr13b/eng.pdf. 2017-12-15. live. 1913PMag...26..476B.
    Bohr. N.. Niels Bohr. 1913. On the constitution of atoms and molecules, part III: Systems containing several nuclei. Philosophical Magazine. 26. 155. 857–875. 10.1080/14786441308635031. 1913PMag...26..857B.
  37. The Spectrum of ζ Puppis and the Historical Evolution of Empirical Data. Nadia. Robotti. Nadia Robotti. Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences. 14. 1. 1983. 123–145. 10.2307/27757527. 27757527.
  38. Pickering. E. C.. Edward Charles Pickering. Harvard College Observatory Circular. 12. Stars having peculiar spectra. New variable stars in Crux and Cygnus. 1–2. 1896. 1896HarCi..12....1P. Also published as: Stars having peculiar spectra. New variable stars in Crux and Cygnus. Pickering. E. C.. Edward Charles Pickering. Fleming. W. P.. Williamina Fleming. Astrophysical Journal. 4. 369–370. 1896. 10.1086/140291. 1896ApJ.....4..369P. free.
  39. The relation between the Wolf–Rayet stars and the planetary nebulae. W. H.. Wright. Astrophysical Journal. 40. 466–472. 1914. 10.1086/142138. 1914ApJ....40..466W. free.
  40. Stars having peculiar spectra. New variable Stars in Crux and Cygnus. E. C.. Pickering. Edward Charles Pickering. 1897. Astronomische Nachrichten. 142. 6. 87–90. 10.1002/asna.18971420605. 1896AN....142...87P. 2019-08-24. https://web.archive.org/web/20190824143848/https://zenodo.org/record/1424755/files/article.pdf. 2019-08-24. live.
  41. The spectrum of zeta Puppis. Pickering. E. C.. Edward Charles Pickering. 1897. Astrophysical Journal. 5. 92–94. 10.1086/140312. 1897ApJ.....5...92P. free.
  42. Book: Lakatos, Imre. The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes. Imre Lakatos. Cambridge University Press. 1980. 9780521280310. John. Worrall. Gregory. Currie. https://books.google.com/books?id=RRniFBI8Gi4C&pg=PA62. Bohr: A Research Programme Progressing on Inconsistent Foundations. 55–68.
  43. Observations of the Principal and other Series of Lines in the Spectrum of Hydrogen. A.. Fowler. Alfred Fowler. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 73. 2. 1912. 62–63. 10.1093/mnras/73.2.62. 1912MNRAS..73...62F. free.
  44. The Spectra of Helium and Hydrogen. N.. Bohr. Niels Bohr. Nature. 92. 2295. 1913. 231–232. 10.1038/092231d0. 1913Natur..92..231B. 11988018.
  45. The Spectra of Helium and Hydrogen. A.. Fowler. Alfred Fowler. Nature. 92. 2291. 1913. 95–96. 10.1038/092095b0. 1913Natur..92...95F. 3972599.
  46. Reply to: The Spectra of Helium and Hydrogen. A.. Fowler. Alfred Fowler. Nature. 92. 2295. 1913. 232–233. 10.1038/092232a0. 1913Natur..92..232F. 3981817.
  47. The Spectra of Hydrogen and Helium. N.. Bohr. Niels Bohr. Nature. 95. 6–7. 6–7. 1915. 10.1038/095006a0. 1915Natur..95....6B. 3947572.
  48. Viscosity of Liquid Helium below the λ-Point . Kapitza, P. . Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa . Nature. 141. 3558 . 74 . 10.1038/141074a0 . 1938. 1938Natur.141...74K . 3997900 . free .
  49. Evidence for a New Phase of Solid He3 . Osheroff, D. D. . Richardson, R. C. . Lee, D. M. . Phys. Rev. Lett. . 28 . 14 . 885–888 . 10.1103/PhysRevLett.28.885 . 1972 . 1972PhRvL..28..885O. 89609083 . free .
  50. Vignos . James H. . Fairbank . Henry A. . 1961-03-15 . New Solid Phase in $^$ |url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.6.265 |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=6 |issue=6 |pages=265–267 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.6.265}.

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