Unsaturated hydrocarbons in the lakes of Titan: Benzene solubility in liquid ethane and methane at cryogenic temperatures

Diez-y-Riega, Helena; Camejo, David; Rodríguez, A.; Manzanares, Carlos E.

doi:10.1016/j.pss.2014.05.003

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…These include nitriles such as acetonitrile (CH 3 CN), acrylonitrile (C 2 H 3 CN), and cyanoacetylene (HC 3 N) as well as benzene (C 6 H 6 ) that has been detected by VIMS at the surface of Titan [ Clark et al ., ]. The solubility of benzene has been measured in both liquid methane and ethane at cryogenic temperature in Titan conditions and found to be low, on the order of 10 mg/L and 100 times lower than this concentration for methane [ Diez‐y‐Riega et al ., ; Malaska and Hodyss , ]. For a 100 m deep ethane sea, Malaska and Hodyss [] estimated that saturation from benzene air fall alone, no fluvial transport required, would be reached on the order of 100 Myr.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Composition, seasonal change, and bathymetry of Ligeia Mare, Titan, derived from its microwave thermal emission

Gall

Malaska

Lorenz

et al. 2016

J. Geophys. Res. Planets

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For the last decade, the passive radiometer incorporated in the Cassini RADAR has recorded the 2.2 cm wavelength thermal emission from Titan's seas. In this paper, we analyze the radiometry observations collected from February 2007 to January 2015 over one of these seas, Ligeia Mare, with the goal of providing constraints on its composition, bathymetry, and dynamics. In light of the depth profile obtained by Mastrogiuseppe et al. (2014) and of a two-layer model, we find that the dielectric constant of the sea liquid is <1.8, and its loss tangent is < 3:6 þ4:3 À2:1 Â10 À5 . Both results point to a composition dominated by liquid methane rather than ethane. A high methane concentration suggests that Ligeia Mare is primarily fed by methane-rich precipitation and/or ethane has been removed from it (e.g., by crustal interaction). Our result on the dielectric constant of the seafloor is less constraining < 2:9 þ0:9 À0:9 À Á , but we favor a scenario where the floor of Ligeia Mare is covered by a sludge of compacted and possibly nitrile-rich organic material formed by the deposition of photochemical haze or by rain washing of the nearby shores. We use these results to produce a low-resolution bathymetry map of the sea. We also estimate the temperature variation of the bulk sea between February 2007 and July 2013 to be <2 K, which provides a constraint on its net evaporative cooling currently being explored in ocean circulation models. Lastly, we suggest a lag in the summer warming of the northern polar terrains.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Composition, seasonal change, and bathymetry of Ligeia Mare, Titan, derived from its microwave thermal emission

Gall

Malaska

Lorenz

et al. 2016

J. Geophys. Res. Planets

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“…The solubility of benzene in liquid ethane is of the order of 10 −5 –10 −6 mol fraction for temperatures between 100 and 150 K . The thermal lens spectra of the fifth C–H overtone of benzene dissolved in condensed ethane at temperatures of 100, 120, and 150 K, respectively, and concentrations between 2 and 6 × 10 −5 mol fraction, have been recorded for first time.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal lens detection of one and two‐color laser excitation of benzene in cryogenic liquid solutions

Diez-y-Riega

Camejo

Manzanares

2015

J Raman Spectroscopy

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The thermal lens technique is applied to vibrational overtone spectroscopy of cryogenic solutions of benzene. The pump and probe thermal lens technique has been found to be very sensitive for detecting samples of low concentration in transparent liquefied gas solvents at low temperatures. The C-H fifth vibrational (Δυ = 6) overtone of benzene in liquefied ethane, krypton, and argon have been recorded at concentrations between 10 and 58 p.p.m. in a range of temperatures between 87 and 150 K. Experiments with one-color laser excitation are sensitive enough to detect benzene at parts per million mole fraction. The dependence of the signal on the physical properties of the solvent and the excitation wavelength are shown. Finally, a thermal lens experiment with two-color laser excitation is presented showing an increase in the magnitude of the peak absorption that will result in an increase of the limit of detection. A three-level model to explain signal enhancement with respect to one-color laser excitation under the same experimental conditions is presented.

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“…Table 3 summarizes the interaction parameters adopted here. It should be noted that C 2 H 2 , CO 2 , and C 6 H 6 parameters have been derived from laboratory measurements published by Neumann & Mann (1969), Cheung & Zander (1968) and Diez-y-Riega et al (2014), respectively. The rather good agreement between our own model and experimental data is shown in Fig.…”

Section: The Model Of Solubilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(1) Tan et al (2013); (2) this work, by fitting data from Gabis (1991) provided by Glein & Shock (2013); (3) this work, by fitting data from Neumann & Mann (1969); (4) Gross & Sadowski (2001); (5) this work, by fitting Cheung & Zander (1968) and previously used by Preston & Prausnitz (1970); (6) this work, by fitting data from Diez-y- Riega et al (2014);(X) set to zero, as dissolution data were not found in the literature. (Etters & Kuchta, 1989;Simon, 1980) C 6 H 6 7.384 9.416 6.757 90 (Craven et al, 1993)…”

Section: Namementioning

confidence: 99%

Structure of Titan’s evaporites

Cordier

Cornet

Barnes

et al. 2016

Icarus

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Numerous geological features that could be evaporitic in origin have been identified on the surface of Titan. Although they seem to be water-ice poor, their main properties -chemical composition, thickness, stratification-are essentially unknown. In this paper, which follows on a previous one focusing on the surface composition (Cordier et al., 2013b), we provide some answers to these questions derived from a new model. This model, based on the up-to-date thermodynamic theory known as "PC-SAFT", has been validated with available laboratory measurements and specifically developed for our purpose. 1-D models confirm the possibility of an acetylene and/or butane enriched central layer of evaporitic deposit. The estimated thickness of this acetylene-butane layer could explain the strong RADAR brightness of the evaporites. The 2-D computations indicate an accumulation of poorly soluble species at the deposit's margin. Among these species, HCN or aerosols similar to tholins could play a dominant role. Our model predicts the existence of chemically trimodal "bathtub rings" which is consistent with what it is observed at the south polar lake Ontario Lacus. This work also provides plausible explanations to the lack of evaporites in the south polar region and to the high radar reflectivity of dry lakebeds.

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Unsaturated hydrocarbons in the lakes of Titan: Benzene solubility in liquid ethane and methane at cryogenic temperatures

Cited by 10 publications

References 33 publications

Composition, seasonal change, and bathymetry of Ligeia Mare, Titan, derived from its microwave thermal emission

Composition, seasonal change, and bathymetry of Ligeia Mare, Titan, derived from its microwave thermal emission

Thermal lens detection of one and two‐color laser excitation of benzene in cryogenic liquid solutions

Structure of Titan’s evaporites

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