Nothing, because you can have only one atom of it. Multiple will just form molecular hydrogen H2. That one hydrogen atom will aggressively rip of another hydrogen of a molecule of water for example, but it won’t be noticeable.
Comment on Can I lick it?
thegreenguy@sopuli.xyz 5 months agoOut of curiosity, what would happen if you do?
Arcity@feddit.nl 5 months ago
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
In the hypothetical, if one were able to lick elemental hydrogen in its atomic, rather than molecular form, it would have a few potential effects. The one that would concern me most would be its aggressive reactivity, ripping hydrogens away from anything that it could in order to achieve stability. This would potentially cause tissue damage both from the deprotonation and shift in pH.
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
What would cause the shift in pH? The atomic hydrogen would rip off H· radicals, not H^+ ions.
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 5 months ago
It would be more likely a secondary or tertiary effect. That is, H• radicals ripped away from their parent molecules would leave •OH, •R, and •RNH radicals. These are unstable and highly reactive, “desiring” to have that stable electron configuration. Likely, this will result in elections being shifted to bring in more stable species, like OH-. Overall, we’re looking at effectively a deprotonation of the saliva, with extra intermediary steps to stabilize the radicals.
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Interesting. Given that H• is a neutral species, what would cause the preference for the creation of stable negative species (freeing up H+) over the creation of stable positive species (freeing up OH-)?