Stability of high-temperature salty ice suggests electrolyte permeability in water-rich exoplanet icy mantles

Jean-Alexis Hernandez (), Razvan Caracas and Stéphane Labrosse
Additional contact information
Jean-Alexis Hernandez: European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
Razvan Caracas: Université de Lyon, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon LGLTPE UMR 5276
Stéphane Labrosse: Université de Lyon, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon LGLTPE UMR 5276

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Electrolytes play an important role in the internal structure and dynamics of water-rich satellites and potentially water-rich exoplanets. However, in planets, the presence of a large high-pressure ice mantle is thought to hinder the exchange and transport of electrolytes between various liquid and solid deep layers. Here we show, using first-principles simulations, that up to 2.5 wt% NaCl can be dissolved in dense water ice at interior conditions of water-rich super-Earths and mini-Neptunes. The salt impurities enhance the diffusion of H atoms, extending the stability field of recently discovered superionic ice, and push towards higher pressures the transition to the stiffer ice X phase. Scaling laws for thermo-compositional convection show that salts entering the high pressure ice layer can be readily transported across. These findings suggest that the high-pressure ice mantle of water-rich exoplanets is permeable to the convective transport of electrolytes between the inner rocky core and the outer liquid layer.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30796-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-30796-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30796-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().