Cargando…
Double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions
The elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are assumed to comprise the bulk of the interiors of the ice giant planets Uranus, Neptune, and sub-Neptune exoplanets. The details of their interior structures have remained largely unknown because it is not understood how the compounds H(2)O, NH(3...
Autores principales: | , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2023
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10663582/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37990010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42958-0 |
_version_ | 1785148667078901760 |
---|---|
author | de Villa, Kyla González-Cataldo, Felipe Militzer, Burkhard |
author_facet | de Villa, Kyla González-Cataldo, Felipe Militzer, Burkhard |
author_sort | de Villa, Kyla |
collection | PubMed |
description | The elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are assumed to comprise the bulk of the interiors of the ice giant planets Uranus, Neptune, and sub-Neptune exoplanets. The details of their interior structures have remained largely unknown because it is not understood how the compounds H(2)O, NH(3) and CH(4) behave and react once they have been accreted and exposed to high pressures and temperatures. Here we study thirteen H-C-N-O compounds with ab initio computer simulations and demonstrate that they assume a superionic state at elevated temperatures, in which the hydrogen ions diffuse through a stable sublattice that is provided by the larger nuclei. At yet higher temperatures, four of the thirteen compounds undergo a second transition to a novel doubly superionic state, in which the smallest of the heavy nuclei diffuse simultaneously with hydrogen ions through the remaining sublattice. Since this transition and the melting transition at yet higher temperatures are both of first order, this may introduce additional layers in the mantle of ice giant planets and alter their convective patterns. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10663582 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-106635822023-11-21 Double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions de Villa, Kyla González-Cataldo, Felipe Militzer, Burkhard Nat Commun Article The elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen are assumed to comprise the bulk of the interiors of the ice giant planets Uranus, Neptune, and sub-Neptune exoplanets. The details of their interior structures have remained largely unknown because it is not understood how the compounds H(2)O, NH(3) and CH(4) behave and react once they have been accreted and exposed to high pressures and temperatures. Here we study thirteen H-C-N-O compounds with ab initio computer simulations and demonstrate that they assume a superionic state at elevated temperatures, in which the hydrogen ions diffuse through a stable sublattice that is provided by the larger nuclei. At yet higher temperatures, four of the thirteen compounds undergo a second transition to a novel doubly superionic state, in which the smallest of the heavy nuclei diffuse simultaneously with hydrogen ions through the remaining sublattice. Since this transition and the melting transition at yet higher temperatures are both of first order, this may introduce additional layers in the mantle of ice giant planets and alter their convective patterns. Nature Publishing Group UK 2023-11-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10663582/ /pubmed/37990010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42958-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article de Villa, Kyla González-Cataldo, Felipe Militzer, Burkhard Double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions |
title | Double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions |
title_full | Double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions |
title_fullStr | Double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions |
title_full_unstemmed | Double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions |
title_short | Double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions |
title_sort | double superionicity in icy compounds at planetary interior conditions |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10663582/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37990010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-42958-0 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT devillakyla doublesuperionicityinicycompoundsatplanetaryinteriorconditions AT gonzalezcataldofelipe doublesuperionicityinicycompoundsatplanetaryinteriorconditions AT militzerburkhard doublesuperionicityinicycompoundsatplanetaryinteriorconditions |