Abstract
Since gas hydrates were shown in the mid-1950s1 to be water clathrates of two distinct crystallographic structures (Table 1), it has been generally accepted that structure I hydrates are formed by molecules with maximum van der Waals diameters of up to about 5.8 Å while structure II hydrates are formed by larger molecules, up to about 7.0 Å in size. No exception to this general rule has been observed among more than 100 individual species of molecules known to form clathrate hydrates2,3. From X-ray and neutron diffraction studies we now find, however, that the two smallest molecules which form clathrate hydrates—argon and krypton—do so in the structure II modification. This finding supports a suggestion of Holder and Manganiello4.
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Davidson, D., Handa, Y., Ratcliffe, C. et al. The ability of small molecules to form clathrate hydrates of structure II. Nature 311, 142–143 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/311142a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/311142a0
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