MANY POTENTIAL TITANEAN MINERALS ARE WELL-KNOWN ORGANIC COMPOUNDS THEREFORE IT COULD BE EXPECTED THEIR PROPERTIES TO BE THOROUGHLY STUDIED. SURPRISINGLY THE KNOWLEDGE ON THE SOLID-STATE CHEMISTRY OF THE SMALLEST ORGANIC MOLECULES IS VERY SCARCE. FOR EXAMPLE THE CRYSTAL STRUCTURE OF PROPIONITRILE (WHICH IS PROVEN TO FORM AEROSOLS AND SURFACE MINERALS ON TITAN) REMAINS UNKNOWN. AN OBVIOUS CULPRIT IS THE PERVASIVE CHALLENGE OF GROWING HIGH-QUALITY SINGLE CRYSTALS AT CRYOGENIC CONDITIONS AS MANY COMPOUNDS TEND TO CRYSTALLIZE AS POLYCRYSTALLINE POWDER. THE MOST APPROPRIATE METHODS FOR ANALYSIS OF POLYCRYSTALLINE POWDERS ARE POWDER X-RAY DIFFRACTION AND POWDER NEUTRON DIFFRACTION. IN THIS PROPOSAL WE WILL USE VARIOUS POWDER DIFFRACTION METHODS COUPLED WITH THERMAL ANALYSES AND NEUTRON SPECTROSCOPY TO RECREATE THE STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION OF MODEL MINERALS ON TITAN.

Southern Methodist University, Dallas TX

Investigators