What methods can be used to ionize substances?

[physea]

Hello!
Is there a list of substances and their ionisation temperature?
, Thanks,!

 

[AidenFlamel]

Wow, I didn't know I was also looking for this until I read. By Ionisation you mean the temperature needed for a substance to become a plasma? There must be such list, tough it may also depend on the pressure applied to said substance.

 

[Borek]

Are you sure something like ionization temperature exists? The closest related thing I can think of is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saha_ionization_equation - if you will read the article you will see there is no point at which gas becomes ionized, rather amount of ionized gas grows with the temperature (and additionally depends on many other factors).

In this context the only thing precisely defined (and yielding a precise number) is the ionization energy.

 

[physea]

mmm, and what are the methods to ionize a substance?
if not, providing it heat?

 

[DrClaude]

mmm, and what are the methods to ionize a substance?
if not, providing it heat?

First, what do you mean by substance? If you just heat them up, most molecules will break apart before losing electrons. Are you also talking about the gas phase? Many substances separate into ions when dissolved in water.

Considering atoms, there is no ionization temperature per se, except for the phase transition to plasma. But simply sending the right frequency of light can be enough to kick out an electron (same as for solids in the photoelectric effect). And light is not the only ionization radiation.