Update on Mars' atmosphere, Media briefing on NASA Jan 15th |
Update on Mars' atmosphere, Media briefing on NASA Jan 15th |
Jan 12 2009, 06:01 PM
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The Poet Dude Group: Moderator Posts: 5551 Joined: 15-March 04 From: Kendal, Cumbria, UK Member No.: 60 |
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Jan 16 2009, 02:00 AM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Are CO2:CH4 clathrates possible?
If you mean CO2 trapped in a methane cage structure....No I don't think so. The cage structure relies on intermolecular hydrogen bonds to set up a cage structure. So the "cage former" requires some sort of polar atom to hook up to other buddies with a healthy strong hydrogen bond interaction. CH4 is pretty much a boring little tetrahedral greaseball: Not good for making cages. So the strongest bond you could get would be a non-polar dispersion ("VanderWalls" is a passe term these days) interaction of a hydrogen atom dispersing into the orbital cloud of another methane molecule. Very, very low lattice energy. Theoretically, it *might could* form a cage, but I would think it would need to be at temperatures approaching absolute zero to make any type of cage structure. -Mike -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Jan 16 2009, 06:49 PM
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 7 Joined: 15-January 09 From: Littlerock CA Member No.: 4527 |
Not to mention the levels of UV - once at the surface, any sort of "cage" or structure in the methane would probably be "blown-apart" by UV. Methane "wants" to come-apart. Are CO2:CH4 clathrates possible? If you mean CO2 trapped in a methane cage structure....No I don't think so. The cage structure relies on intermolecular hydrogen bonds to set up a cage structure. So the "cage former" requires some sort of polar atom to hook up to other buddies with a healthy strong hydrogen bond interaction. CH4 is pretty much a boring little tetrahedral greaseball: Not good for making cages. So the strongest bond you could get would be a non-polar dispersion ("VanderWalls" is a passe term these days) interaction of a hydrogen atom dispersing into the orbital cloud of another methane molecule. Very, very low lattice energy. Theoretically, it *might could* form a cage, but I would think it would need to be at temperatures approaching absolute zero to make any type of cage structure. -Mike -------------------- From the point of view of the "self", all things are relative. The smarter you are, then, the more likely it is you are surrounded by idiots.
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