I'm looking for a list of nearly all elements and the temperatures they can reach when in a state of plasma. It is for a project I am working on. However, there isn't a list on google.
Preferably one that is hot enough to survive a drop from orbit.
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$\begingroup$ there does not exist one. Have you heard of phase diagrams? they are painstaking calculations for specific materials using the laws of thermodynamics, so particular calculations exist for particular problems. In addition any meteor consisting of plasma will dissipate fast, from black body radiation . For the complexity of what you are trying to tackle see here ocw.mit.edu/courses/materials-science-and-engineering/… . Temperatures of plasma are not limited on the high side, except by energy $\endgroup$– anna vCommented Jul 17, 2017 at 3:57
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$\begingroup$ see this for introduction to phases users.aber.ac.uk/ruw/teach/334/condmat.php $\endgroup$– anna vCommented Jul 17, 2017 at 3:57
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$\begingroup$ I can't understand your last sentence. On "drop from orbit" you understand a free fall to the Earth from 1 mile, or what? What do you understand on "survival" in this sense? 1 mile is nowhere from even a low Earth orbit (200-300 km). $\endgroup$– peterhCommented Jul 17, 2017 at 4:16
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$\begingroup$ Can't you just look up the first ionization energies of the elements? You can convert the energies to "temperatures" by using 1 eV ~ 11604 K. $\endgroup$– honeste_vivereCommented Jul 17, 2017 at 15:33
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2 Answers
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The reason why you won't find such a table on google, that there is no such temperature.
Plasma means that the electrons are freely moving around the ionized atoms of the gas. This causes many changes in its physical properties: the gas will be a conductor, it will interact with electromagnetic fields and so on.
To reach this, the mean kinetical energy of the atoms of the gas should be in the order of its first ionization energy (this is the energy what you need to tear away its first electron). For that, there are already tables on the google. It will be in electronvolt (eV). To convert it to temperature, as a rough estimation, you can use $1eV = 11000 K$.
In the gases (and in plasma), its particles are moving randomly, they don't have a fix speed (energy), rather an energy distribution. Its graph looks like this:
As you heat the gas, there will be more and more atoms in it where one (or more) of its electrons will be teared apart from them. To get a plasma-like state, it is enough if only a little part of the atoms are ionized. But there isn't a fix temperature point for that.
In practice, the temperature interval where the matter starts to behave as plasma is between 6000 - 10000 K.
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$\begingroup$ @annav Thanks. It shows pretty well by me. A possible reason could be that it is in a gif format. I will check this again in an hour from a pc. It is an ordinary example Boltzmann distribution. $\endgroup$– peterhCommented Jul 17, 2017 at 4:45
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$\begingroup$ ok now, before it said "imgur had wrong format". Maybe it was a problem with imgur( the plots storage) $\endgroup$– anna vCommented Jul 17, 2017 at 4:55
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Your newest question which is on hold, shows you have not read up the links of what plasma is.
Preferably one that is hot enough to survive a drop from orbit
It is not heat that is the problem with a plasma gun , but containment.
To start with plasma is a gas of neutral and exited atoms and electrons. Gases need containment, that is the problem, because in any vessel the electrons and ions will hit the walls and get absorbed their energy dissipated, unless channeled by the use of magnetic fields. The closest to plasma containment are the tokamaks, but one cannot conceive all that metal and mass thrown from a satellite to have any connection with the plasma inside.
The hydrogen bomb ends up in a plasma state, at the point of explosion. When ejected there is no plasma, until the explosion is triggered by the fission bomb contained inside it.
So try thinking about something else, maybe studying some of the links?
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$\begingroup$ What about containing the plasma in a modified version of the tokamaks as a canister shell? $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 21, 2017 at 0:57