Observation of ammonia dihydrate in the AMH-VI structure at room temperature - possible implications for the outer solar system.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Loveday, J.S.; Nelmes, R.J.; Bull, C.L.; Maynard-Casely, H.E.; Guthrie, M.
- Source
- High Pressure Research. Sep2009, Vol. 29 Issue 3, p396-404. 9p. 4 Graphs.
- Subject
- *SOLAR system
*NITROGEN compounds
*AMMONIA
*NEUTRON diffraction
*PARTICLES (Nuclear physics)
- Language
- ISSN
- 0895-7959
Ammonia dihydrate (ADH) is an important constituent of the outer solar system and its high-pressure behaviour is relevant to the modelling of Titan, Uranus and Neptune. Our neutron diffraction studies show that ADH can exist at room temperature in the substitutionally disordered structure of the ammonia monohydrate (AMH) phase VI. This implies that a solid solution may exist between ADH and AMH at high pressure, and this is of probable importance to models of the outer solar system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]