Peritectic phase transition of benzene and acetonitrile into a cocrystal relevant to Titan, Saturn's moon

McConville, Christina A.; Tao, Yunwen; Evans, Hayden A.; Trump, Benjamin A.; Lefton, Jonathan B.; Xu, Wenqian; Yakovenko, Andrey A.; Kraka, Elfi; Brown, Craig M.; Runčevski, Tomče

doi:10.1039/d0cc04999a

Peritectic phase transition of benzene and acetonitrile into a cocrystal relevant to Titan, Saturn's moon

Journal Article · Fri Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · ChemComm

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cc04999a· OSTI ID:1774340

McConville, Christina A. ^[1]; Tao, Yunwen ^[1]; Evans, Hayden A. ^[2]; Trump, Benjamin A. ^[2]; Lefton, Jonathan B. ^[1]; Xu, Wenqian ^[3]; Yakovenko, Andrey A. ^[3]; Kraka, Elfi ^[1]; ^[4]; ^[1]

Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, TX (United States)
National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States); Univ. of Delaware, Newark, DE (United States)

Benzene and acetonitrile are two of the most commonly used solvents found in almost every chemical laboratory. Titan is one other place in the solar system that has large amounts of these compounds. On Titan, organic molecules are produced in the atmosphere and carried to the surface where they can mineralize. In this work, we report the phase diagram of mixtures of acetonitrile and benzene, and provide an account of the structure and composition of the phases. To mimic the environment on Titan more accurately, we tested the stability of the structure under liquid ethane. The results provide new insights into the structure and stability of potential extraterrestrial minerals. In light of Dragonfly, NASA's upcoming mission to Titan, revisiting the fundamental chemistry of the smallest molecules with modern methods and techniques can have significant contributions to this epochal mission and can open new research directions in chemistry.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Southern Methodist University; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division; Welch Foundation

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1774340

Journal Information:: ChemComm, Journal Name: ChemComm Journal Issue: 88 Vol. 56; ISSN 1359-7345

Publisher:: Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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