Open AccessReactivity of Xenon with Ice at Planetary Conditions
Author(s) -
C. Sanloup,
Stanimir Bonev,
M. Hochlaf,
Helen E. Maynard-Casely
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
physical review letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.688
H-Index - 673
eISSN - 1079-7114
pISSN - 0031-9007
DOI - 10.1103/physrevlett.110.265501
Subject(s) - uranus , xenon , materials science , reactivity (psychology) , neptune , ab initio , oxygen , atomic physics , planet , chemical physics , physics , astrophysics , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , quantum mechanics
International audienceWe 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