Synthesis and properties of platinum hydride

Synchrotron x-ray diffraction experiments on compressed platinum-hydrogen mixtures reveal the formation of platinum hydride at a pressure of 27(1) GPa at room temperature. This compound exhibits two phases, PtH-I and PtH-II, coexisting up to the pressure of 42 GPa, above which the single phase of PtH-II is observed. Pt atoms in the PtH-II phase are shown to form a hexagonal closed-packed structure. This phase exhibits a high bulk modulus of 310 (10) GPa and is stable up to at least 53 GPa. Ab initio calculations show that PtH-II is superconducting with T-c = 12 K at 90 GPa, the highest temperature of superconducting transition among any known metal hydride.