A comprehensive study of spectra of the bound–free hyperfine levels of novel hydride ion H−(1/2), hydrogen, nitrogen, and air

Rb+ to Rb2+ and 2K+ to K+K2+ each provide a reaction with a net enthalpy equal to the potential energy of atomic hydrogen. The presence of these gaseous ions with thermally dissociated hydrogen formed a hydrogen plasma with hydrogen atom energies of 17 and 12 eV, respectively, compared to 3 eV for a hydrogen microwave plasma. We propose an energetic catalytic reaction involving a resonance energy transfer between hydrogen atoms and Rb+ or 2K+ to form a very stable novel hydride ion H−(1/2). Its predicted binding energy of 3.0468 eV was observed by high resolution visible spectroscopy as a continuum threshold at 4068.2 Å, and a structured, strong emission peak was observed at 4071 Å corresponding to the fine structure and hyperfine structure of H(1/2). From the electron g factor, bound–free hyperfine structure lines of H−(1/2) were predicted with energies EHF given by EHF=j23.00213×10−5+3.0563 eV (j is an integer) as an inverse Rydberg-type series from 3.0563 to 3.1012 eV—the hydride binding energy peak with the fine structure plus one and five times the spin-pairing energy, respectively. The high resolution visible plasma emission spectra in the region of 3995–4060 Å matched the predicted emission lines for j=1–39 with the series edge at 3996.3 Å up to 1 part in 105. The structure of these peaks matched that of H−(1/2). All species present in the reaction or possible contaminants were eliminated as the source of the 4071 Å peak, the series of 39 lines, and the series edge. In particular, nitrogen, air, and hydrogen were eliminated. Hydrogen could not account for the lines in the region of interest, but did account for all lines outside the region of interest.