Is there a metal for which its gas is necessarily a plasma?

Related to this question:
[Gaseous metals?](https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/104408/gaseous-metals)


The top answer clarifies that even with metals, the gaseous state is distinct from a plasma.


However, my question is, is this actually true in all cases?
Or is there an element and a pressure for which heating it to a gas will necessarily also be hot enough for it to immediately become a plasma?
Or is there a situation in which heating can bring about the transition from solid or liquid straight to plasma while skipping gas?




In principle, all that is required is for a substance to evaporate from a liquid into a plasma directly is for its ionisation energy to be significantly smaller than the average kinetic energy of its particles at its "boiling point". Or in other words, as a very rough estimate this is true when $\mathrm{k\_BT\_{boiling}≳EI}$.


Going further down in the periodic table, elements tend to have higher boiling points and lower ionisation energies. After reaching the superheavy element region (Z>100) things get much more complicated due to strong relativistic effects, but the elements from Rf to Hs (Z=104 to 108) are expected to have the highest boiling points at ambient pressure of any known chemical substance, possibly well past $\mathrm{6000\ K}$. However, their calculated ionisation energies of $\mathrm{6-8\ eV}$ suggest they would only ionise considerably at temperatures 10 times higher still ([$\mathrm{1\ eV/k\_B= 11605\ K}$](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronvolt#Temperature)), meaning there is still a long way to go.


As others have mentioned, increasing the pressure is a reliable way to push boiling/sublimation points higher, up to where they can match and surpass the energy regime required for ionisation. However, this would require absurdly high pressures; for example, the boiling point of tungsten at $\mathrm{1000\ bar}$ is still a mere $\mathrm{9000-10000\ K}$ ([ref](https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670030361.pdf)). Thus, a **very** crude extrapolation would suggest the direct conversion of liquid (or more likely solid) tungsten to a plasma would happen around $\mathrm{90000\ K}$ under a pressure of $\mathrm{20\ Mbar}$ (20 million atmospheres!).


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Yes! If you look at a phase diagram of an element, you will see that with extremely high pressures, extreme heat will keep it a liquid. Eventually, theoretically with some elements, a phase change could occur directly from liquid to plasma, but the pressure would have to be incredibly high. This is caused from the electrons moving too far away from the nucleus.


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