Deutsche Tagung f ¨ur Forschung mit ... - SNI-Portal

Struktur und Dynamik Poster: Mi., 14:00–16:30 M-P115
Quantum entanglement in the fast proton conductor H3OSbTeO6
Tyno Abdul-Redah 1 , Aris C. Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann 1 , Brigitte Hahn 1 ,
Martin Lerch 1
1 Institut f. Chemie, Str. d. 17. Juni 135, TU Berlin, Germany.
Due to the rapidly growing environmental and economical problems of natural energy
resources in the near future, the development and optimization of fuel cells is one of
the most pressing goals for science and technology today. A key process governing
the efficiency of those cells is the ion mobility within the electrolyte being solid in
the most common types. State of the art models of transport processes in super
ion conductors are based on quantum molecular dynamics which do not take into
account the existence of short-lived (i. e. atto-second) quantum entanglement and fast
decoherence [1]. In recent years, an anomalous shortfall of neutron Compton scattering
intensity has been observed in hydrogen-containing compounds and which has been
attributed to the aforementioned quantum phenomena; cf. [2]. Here we present new
experimental results, which indicate a strong anomalous shortfall of scattering intensity
of the protons in the fast proton conductor H3OSbTeO6 (pyrochlore-type).
The displayed figure shows the measured (at T=298) ratio Rexp of scattering intensity
of H of H3OSbTeO6 relative to that of all heavier atoms (O, Sb, and Te), normalised
with the expected value according to conventional theory, Rconv. An anomalous shortfall
of Rexp in the range 20-30 % is found. These results suggest that the ion transport
phenomenon in the electrolyte may be governed by a thus far unconsidered mechanism,
i. e., by the quantum entanglement of the protons and by decoherence due to the interaction
with the surrounding atoms. This experimental finding may have consequences
for the theoretical description of transport processes of protons in solids.
[1] C. A. Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann, Nachrichten aus der Chemie 52 (2004) 773.
[2] C. A. Chatzidimitriou-Dreismann, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 79 (1997) 2839; Phys.
Rev. Lett. 91 (2003) 057403.