Reactivity of Xenon with Ice at Planetary Conditions - Sorbonne Université
Journal Articles Physical Review Letters Year : 2013

Reactivity of Xenon with Ice at Planetary Conditions

Abstract

We report results from high pressure and temperature experiments that provide evidence for the reactivity of xenon with water ice at pressures above 50 GPa and a temperature of 1500 K--conditions that are found in the interiors of Uranus and Neptune. The x-ray data are sufficient to determine a hexagonal lattice with four Xe atoms per unit cell and several possible distributions of O atoms. The measurements are supplemented with ab initio calculations, on the basis of which a crystallographic structure with a Xe4O12H12 primitive cell is proposed. The newly discovered compound is formed in the stability fields of superionic ice and η-O2, and has the same oxygen subnetwork as the latter. Furthermore, it has a weakly metallic character and likely undergoes sublattice melting of the H subsystem. Our findings indicate that Xe is expected to be depleted in the atmospheres of the giant planets as a result of sequestration at depth.

Domains

Mineralogy

Dates and versions

hal-00936434 , version 1 (26-01-2014)

Identifiers

Cite

Chrystèle Sanloup, S. A. Bonev, M. Hochlaf, H. Maynard-Casely. Reactivity of Xenon with Ice at Planetary Conditions. Physical Review Letters, 2013, 26 (265501), 5 p. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.265501⟩. ⟨hal-00936434⟩
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