Ionisation by a magnetic field?

[Kael42]

Is it not possible that, given a powerful enough magnetic field, the binding energy of an electron in a stable, neutral atom could be overcome from the tearing of the negatively charged electrons in one direction, and of the positively charged nucleus in the other?

I have searched online, and there doesn't seem to be a mention to this anywhere...

If this were to be true, I imagine that it would have been used already to form otherwise unobtainable negative ions, and make brand new compounds. Such a revolution has obviously not happened, so what is the problem with my logic?

If the problem is that it requires too strong a magnetic field to be produced by human technology, how could the theoretical power required be calculated.

Cheers, Kael.

 

[JeffKoch]

so what is the problem with my logic?

Do you understand what a magnetic field is and how charged particles are affected by them?

 

[Kael42]

I was fair sure I did, but it has been a while since I dealt with them, and your question seems to imply I don't. I'll google them to refresh my memory.

 

[Kael42]

Took a look. Nothing seems to contradict the logic I found. Positive and negative particles are pulled in circles in opposing directions. In the case of an atom, It would simply be a fight between the pull of the field and and the binding energy of the electrons... wouldn't it?

 

[JeffKoch]

No. Electric fields pull electrons and nucleii apart, and you can field-ionize atoms this way with sufficiently strong electric fields. What this has to do with "otherwise unobtainable negative ions", I do not have the slightest clue, but magnetic fields are not electric fields - they can change atomic structure and affect emission and absorption spectra, but they do not by themselves ionize atoms.

 

[fluidistic]

I'm a bit late here, but I think an enormously strong magnetic field could indeed ionize some atoms. The problem is that as far as I know the ones we obtain in the lab (see there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(magnetic_field )) are too small or they seem to blow up material.
I think we can use the formula $\Delta E =m_l \mu _B B$ (although I am not 100% sure, maybe this formula instead : $\Delta E =(m_l+2m_s) \mu _B B$. Can someone tell me which one to use for a huge magnetic field?). For example we can take $m_l=1$.
In any case I suggest you to read about the Paschen-Back effect.

 

[clearwater304]

I remember watching this episode about the manhatten project where they used magnets in isotope separation to help purify uranium.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope_separation

This required an large amount of energy. I think its safe to say your system would require quite a bit more.

 

[stillwatcher]

Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone could expound on this question, even though it's old, I wanted to add into the question here on whether a magnetic field could be strong enough to propel the atoms into collision with some ferromagnetic element such as Iron.