IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v14y2023i1d10.1038_s41467-023-36841-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thermodynamics of diamond formation from hydrocarbon mixtures in planets

Author

Listed:
  • Bingqing Cheng

    (The Institute of Science and Technology Austria)

  • Sebastien Hamel

    (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

  • Mandy Bethkenhagen

    (The Institute of Science and Technology Austria
    Université Lyon 1, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, CNRS UMR 5276)

Abstract

Hydrocarbon mixtures are extremely abundant in the Universe, and diamond formation from them can play a crucial role in shaping the interior structure and evolution of planets. With first-principles accuracy, we first estimate the melting line of diamond, and then reveal the nature of chemical bonding in hydrocarbons at extreme conditions. We finally establish the pressure-temperature phase boundary where it is thermodynamically possible for diamond to form from hydrocarbon mixtures with different atomic fractions of carbon. Notably, here we show a depletion zone at pressures above 200 GPa and temperatures below 3000 K-3500 K where diamond formation is thermodynamically favorable regardless of the carbon atomic fraction, due to a phase separation mechanism. The cooler condition of the interior of Neptune compared to Uranus means that the former is much more likely to contain the depletion zone. Our findings can help explain the dichotomy of the two ice giants manifested by the low luminosity of Uranus, and lead to a better understanding of (exo-)planetary formation and evolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Bingqing Cheng & Sebastien Hamel & Mandy Bethkenhagen, 2023. "Thermodynamics of diamond formation from hydrocarbon mixtures in planets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-36841-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36841-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36841-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-023-36841-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. A. B. Zylstra & O. A. Hurricane & D. A. Callahan & A. L. Kritcher & J. E. Ralph & H. F. Robey & J. S. Ross & C. V. Young & K. L. Baker & D. T. Casey & T. Döppner & L. Divol & M. Hohenberger & S. Pape , 2022. "Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion," Nature, Nature, vol. 601(7894), pages 542-548, January.
    2. A. B. Zylstra & O. A. Hurricane & D. A. Callahan & A. L. Kritcher & J. E. Ralph & H. F. Robey & J. S. Ross & C. V. Young & K. L. Baker & D. T. Casey & T. Döppner & L. Divol & M. Hohenberger & S. Pape , 2022. "Publisher Correction: Burning plasma achieved in inertial fusion," Nature, Nature, vol. 603(7903), pages 34-34, March.
    3. Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay & Gilles Fontaine & Nicola Pietro Gentile Fusillo & Bart H. Dunlap & Boris T. Gänsicke & Mark A. Hollands & J. J. Hermes & Thomas R. Marsh & Elena Cukanovaite & Tim Cunningham, 2019. "Core crystallization and pile-up in the cooling sequence of evolving white dwarfs," Nature, Nature, vol. 565(7738), pages 202-205, January.
    4. Aleks Reinhardt & Bingqing Cheng, 2021. "Quantum-mechanical exploration of the phase diagram of water," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
    5. Tanguy Bertrand & François Forget & Bernard Schmitt & Oliver L. White & William M. Grundy, 2020. "Equatorial mountains on Pluto are covered by methane frosts resulting from a unique atmospheric process," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-7, December.
    6. Bingqing Cheng & Guglielmo Mazzola & Chris J. Pickard & Michele Ceriotti, 2020. "Evidence for supercritical behaviour of high-pressure liquid hydrogen," Nature, Nature, vol. 585(7824), pages 217-220, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mingfeng Liu & Jiantao Wang & Junwei Hu & Peitao Liu & Haiyang Niu & Xuexi Yan & Jiangxu Li & Haile Yan & Bo Yang & Yan Sun & Chunlin Chen & Georg Kresse & Liang Zuo & Xing-Qiu Chen, 2024. "Layer-by-layer phase transformation in Ti3O5 revealed by machine-learning molecular dynamics simulations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Yongjiang Xu & Yanhao Lin & Peiyan Wu & Olivier Namur & Yishen Zhang & Bernard Charlier, 2024. "A diamond-bearing core-mantle boundary on Mercury," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boubacar Kanté, 2024. "BerkSEL: A scale-invariant laser beyond the Schawlow-Townes two-mirror strategy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-3, December.
    2. J. E. Ralph & J. S. Ross & A. B. Zylstra & A. L. Kritcher & H. F. Robey & C. V. Young & O. A. Hurricane & A. Pak & D. A. Callahan & K. L. Baker & D. T. Casey & T. Döppner & L. Divol & M. Hohenberger &, 2024. "The impact of low-mode symmetry on inertial fusion energy output in the burning plasma state," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Tobias Dornheim & Maximilian Böhme & Dominik Kraus & Tilo Döppner & Thomas R. Preston & Zhandos A. Moldabekov & Jan Vorberger, 2022. "Accurate temperature diagnostics for matter under extreme conditions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.
    4. Aleks Reinhardt & Mandy Bethkenhagen & Federica Coppari & Marius Millot & Sebastien Hamel & Bingqing Cheng, 2022. "Thermodynamics of high-pressure ice phases explored with atomistic simulations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Huziel E. Sauceda & Luis E. Gálvez-González & Stefan Chmiela & Lauro Oliver Paz-Borbón & Klaus-Robert Müller & Alexandre Tkatchenko, 2022. "BIGDML—Towards accurate quantum machine learning force fields for materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Sigbjørn Løland Bore & Francesco Paesani, 2023. "Realistic phase diagram of water from “first principles” data-driven quantum simulations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Kelsi N. Singer & Oliver L. White & Bernard Schmitt & Erika L. Rader & Silvia Protopapa & William M. Grundy & Dale P. Cruikshank & Tanguy Bertrand & Paul M. Schenk & William B. McKinnon & S. Alan Ster, 2022. "Large-scale cryovolcanic resurfacing on Pluto," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. S. X. Hu & David T. Bishel & David A. Chin & Philip M. Nilson & Valentin V. Karasiev & Igor E. Golovkin & Ming Gu & Stephanie B. Hansen & Deyan I. Mihaylov & Nathaniel R. Shaffer & Shuai Zhang & Timot, 2022. "Probing atomic physics at ultrahigh pressure using laser-driven implosions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-36841-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.