Talk:Hydrogen

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Hydrogen is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

Hydrogen is part of the Period 1 elements series, a good topic. This is identified as among the best series of articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on October 29, 2006.

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Date	Process	Result
November 8, 2004	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
September 18, 2005	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
December 20, 2005	Good article nominee	Listed
September 25, 2006	Featured article candidate	Promoted
April 20, 2008	Featured article review	Kept
August 16, 2008	Featured topic candidate	Promoted
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Early universe and development of hydrogen

I am wondering whether or not mention of the development of hydrogen in the early universe is lacking. Currently, there is a mention of it in the lede, where it describes at what point in time hydrogen first existed, then at what point in time electrons joined hydrogens. This is not elaborated anywhere else in the article, which I feel could be very useful, where one could include other relevant pieces of information, such as at what point molecular hydrogen first formed. Also, the mention of the formation of hydrogens' protons do not appear in its subsequent source, and is disputed to be slightly longer than that (see Big Bang nucleosynthesis, although perhaps the article could be referring to the creation of protons, and not nucleosynthesis? It is not clear). MrMeAndMrMe_Talk 02:39, 1 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Plural

H, C and O, if referring to hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen; should be pluralized as H's, C's, and O's (with apostrophes); as opposed to Hs, Cs, and Os (no apostrophes); to avoid confusion with Hs = hassium, Cs = cesium, and Os = osmium. The fact that hassium is an unstable, artificial element which has never been procured in macroscopic amounts, doesn't mean that clarity isn't compromised by the absence of said apostrophe. I remember, a chemistry book which was available online for free as a PDF, did said plurals without an apostrophe; which annoyed me. Solomonfromfinland (talk) 03:02, 31 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I found no such usage in this article. Johnjbarton (talk) 04:01, 14 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

White / gold / natural hydrogen

@Clayoquot: I think what you've just replaced is outdated as there are now various projects looking to utilise hydrogen found in geological features: [1] which wasn't the case 30 years ago. That's not the best of sources to use here, but we should include the info somewhere. I see a brief mention in Hydrogen#Terrestrial but that's not the best source either. SmartSE (talk) 20:01, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We have natural hydrogen which is linked, but only in the lead (as dihydrogen) and the see also. SmartSE (talk) 20:09, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Carrier business

@Clayoquot: So H2 is not a fuel, it is a carrier. Also, from energy carrier, we read "carriers include springs, electrical batteries, capacitors, pressurized air, dammed water, hydrogen, petroleum, coal, wood, and natural gas." That seems to about wrap it up for combustable stuff (surprise: they are definitely not fuels!).

What we are trying to convey in this article is not whether H2 is a fuel or a carrier, but that a large effort is dedicated to what one might call "H2 carriers" (carriers of carriers?). Engineers like H2 as a not-fuel-fuel because it burns cleanly and it can be made from abundant resources (water). But engineers dislike H2 as a not-fuel-fuel because it is not readily condensed or stored. So engineers have dedicated much effort to systems that are carriers for H2, which are H-rich materials that are reversibly release H2 on demand. So, we have a predicament that editors might help with: on one hand we have the nomenclaturists who insist that H2 is a carrier, and on the other hand we have engineers who are trying to solve problems, not with nomenclature, but with energy, and they are focused on carriers for H2.

Hope that makes sense. --Smokefoot (talk) 21:30, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yup, I hear you and Smartse. I've got some ideas for making everyone happy... but I also just got handed a new task at work so I won't be able to flesh things out yet. I'll self-revert for now and will come back to this in a few days. Cheers, Clayoquot (talk | contribs) 23:05, 15 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Discovery in article vs template

@WikiCorrector5241 In the article we learn that Boyle discovered a reaction:

In 1671, Irish scientist Robert Boyle discovered and described the reaction...

and but that

In 1766, Henry Cavendish was the first to recognize hydrogen gas as a discrete substance... and

He is usually given credit for the discovery of hydrogen as an element. and

In 1783, Antoine Lavoisier identified the element that came to be known as hydrogen...

This is inconsistent with the infobar content.

During this era of history the nature of elements and especially of gases was unclear. You can see that in the sources. The concept of "discovery" of the element makes little sense. I think if the infobar must have a "discoverer", then all three should be listed. Johnjbarton (talk) 22:31, 17 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 18 January 2025

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Change all the American spellings to British spellings because this article is written in British English (see top of talk page). 2600:1700:14BE:E00:B56A:1711:D3E7:DCB6 (talk) 00:52, 18 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. jlwoodwa (talk) 01:00, 18 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]