Spin Isomers of Hydrogen
Room temperature hydrogen consists mostly of the orthohydrogen form. After production, liquid hydrogen is in a metastable state and must be converted into the parahydrogen isomer form to avoid the exothermic reaction that occurs when it changes at low temperatures, this is usually performed using a catalyst like ferric oxide, activated carbon, platinized asbestos, rare earth metals, uranium compounds, chromic oxide, or some nickel compounds.
Read more about this topic: Liquid Hydrogen
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