Pressure Induced Metallization of Light Group IV Hydrides

Recently reported superconductivity in lithium under pressure has renewed the interest on hydrogen and hydrogen-rich systems in the long standing conquest of room temperature superconductivity. Although the required metallization of pure hydrogen cannot be achieved within current experimental capabilities, chemical precompression exerted by heavier atoms in compounds with a large hydrogen content is expected to imply that lower pressures might be required to attain the metallic transition in these alloys. In this work we present an \textit{ab initio} analysis of pressure induced metallization of methane, silane and germane, as light group IVa hydrides. According to our calculations, although metallization in methane cannot be reached at pressures lower than 400 GPa, silane and germane are predicted to become metallic at experimentally accessible pressures of around 90 GPa and 70 GPa, respectively. Possible superconducting transitions of these compounds will be also analyzed.