Highly compressed water structure observed in a perchlorate aqueous solution

Samuel Lenton, Natasha H. Rhys, James J. Towey, Alan K. Soper () and Lorna Dougan ()
Additional contact information
Samuel Lenton: University of Leeds
Natasha H. Rhys: University of Leeds
James J. Towey: University of Leeds
Alan K. Soper: University of Leeds
Lorna Dougan: University of Leeds

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-5

Abstract: 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.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01039-9 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:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-01039-9

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01039-9

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 ().