2025年12月24日，一项高压实验中，薄金箔在「数十万倍于地球大气压」的压力与超过3,500华氏度的高温下接触致密氢，意外生成新化合物「金氢化物（gold hydride）」。这一结果挑战了金在常规条件下近乎惰性的既有印象，并被描述为实验室中首次确认、仅由金与氢原子构成的固态化合物。

原始目的其实是测量简单烃在钻石对顶砧（diamond anvil cell）中于极端压力与激光加热下转化为钻石所需的时间；在欧洲XFEL，X射线以每秒数千次脉冲轰击金箔并快速加热周围样品。散射讯号一方面验证碳原子形成钻石晶格，另一方面显示氢进入六方金晶格；在高温高压下氢呈现超离子态、在固体中快速扩散，但在冷却时又从晶格中分离，且金氢化物在压力升高时可容纳更多氢、在条件缓和时回复为金。

这种可控体系为「致密氢」的结构与运动提供可量测的标尺，对类木行星（如木星内部可能存在金属氢外壳）与聚变燃料建模尤其关键；文中并指出，在高密度条件下氢行为的微小不确定性就可能显著改变聚变预测。整体趋势显示：随压力与温度提升，化学反应性与相态会出现非线性跃迁，连「不活泼」元素也可能形成只在极端条件下存在、并在降压降温后消失的奇异相。

On Dec 24, 2025, a high-pressure experiment brought thin gold foil into contact with dense hydrogen at pressures hundreds of thousands of times Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures above 3,500°F, accidentally forming a new compound: gold hydride. The result challenges gold’s near-inert reputation under normal conditions and is described as the first confirmed solid compound made solely of gold and hydrogen atoms in a laboratory setting.

The experiment originally targeted diamond formation timing by squeezing tiny hydrocarbon droplets in a diamond anvil cell and heating them; at the European XFEL, X-ray bursts delivered thousands of pulses per second into a gold foil heater. Scattering data both confirmed a diamond lattice for carbon and revealed hydrogen entering a hexagonal gold lattice; at extreme pressure and heat the hydrogen became superionic and diffused rapidly, then separated on cooling, while the hydride held more hydrogen as pressure rose and reverted to plain gold as conditions eased.

This controllable system provides quantitative benchmarks for dense-hydrogen structure and motion relevant to giant-planet interiors (e.g., models of Jupiter’s metallic-hydrogen shell) and to fusion-fuel modeling; the text notes that even small uncertainties in high-density hydrogen behavior can significantly shift fusion predictions. The broader trend is that rising pressure and temperature can unlock chemistry and phases that do not exist at ambient conditions, making even “unreactive” elements behave reactively and producing exotic states that vanish when extremes relax.