Lenton, S orcid.org/0000-0003-1740-9980, Rhys, NH, Towey, JJ et al. (2 more authors) (2017) Highly compressed water structure observed in a perchlorate aqueous solution. Nature Communications, 8. 919. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
The discovery by the Phoenix Lander of calcium and magnesium perchlorates in Martian soil samples has fueled much speculation that flows of perchlorate brines might be the cause of the observed channeling and weathering in the surface. Here, we study the structure of a mimetic of Martian water, magnesium perchlorate aqueous solution at its eutectic composition, using neutron diffraction in combination with hydrogen isotope labeling and empirical potential structure refinement. We find that the tetrahedral structure of water is heavily perturbed, the effect being equivalent to pressurizing pure water to pressures of order 2 GPa or more. The Mg2+ and ClO4− ions appear charge-ordered, confining the water on length scales of order 9 Å, preventing ice formation at low temperature. This may explain the low evaporation rates and high deliquescence of these salt solutions, which are essential for stability within the low relative humidity environment of the Martian atmosphere.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2017. 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 license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license 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 license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Astrobiology; Physical chemistry; Structure of solids and liquids; Water resources |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Molecular & Nanoscale Physics |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/H020616/1 EU - European Union 258259 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 02 Nov 2017 15:15 |
Last Modified: | 13 Dec 2024 16:00 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-017-01039-9 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:123374 |