Superacids can turn carbon molecules into diamonds Sefa Kart/Alamy
Water may transform into a superacidic fluid under extreme heat and pressure. These conditions are found only in Earth’s interior, within icy planets like Uranus and Neptune – and possibly in controlled laboratory experiments.
“Under immense pressures and temperatures, water exhibits a remarkable property – it becomes an exceptionally potent acid, also known as a ‘superacid’, which can be billions or even trillions of times stronger than sulphuric acid,” says Flavio Siro Brigiano at Sorbonne University in France.
This…
