Physisorption As A General Mechanism Of Trapping CO2 In The Surfaces Of Icy Satellites

Details Physisorption As A General Mechanism Of Trapping CO2 In The Surfaces Of Icy Satellites Physisorption As A General Mechanism Of Trapping CO2 In The Surfaces Of Icy Satellites

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.7203h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #72.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.628

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CO2 has been detected in the surfaces of several of the Galilean and Saturnian satellites (Carlson et al., 1996; McCord et al., 1998; Buratti et al., 2005; Clark et al., 2005). However, its physical state is poorly understood. On the Galilean satellites the CO2 that is detected is bound to, or trapped within, the non-ice materials preventing it from sublimating or otherwise escaping from the surface. This CO2 is a trace material, with only a few hundred molecules responsible for the deepest absorption features with an estimated molar abundance of 0.1%. (Hibbitts et al., 2000). The abundance of CO2 in the Saturnian satellites Phoebe and Iapetus is similar, but whether the host is the ice and/or the nonice material is uncertain. Physisorption may be a sufficiently strong trapping mechanism to explain how CO2 can be stably held in these surfaces and explain its spectral characteristics. CO2 adsorbed onto complex clays such as montmorillonite remain stable for > hours under vacuum at temperatures relevant to the Galilean and Saturnian satellites and closely resemble the spectra of the CO2 there. The spectra of physisorbed CO2 shift position and shape, depending on the identity of the charge compensating ions in the clay (e.g. Ca, Mg, Na, Li) and on temperature. These ions, and the strength of resulting negative charge of the remaining structure, likely induce a dipole in the CO2 causing it to physisorb, explaining the spectral characteristics of the CO2 that exhibit a dependency on ion charge density. The separate spectral dependence on temperature suggests that CO2 occupies different sites at different temperatures. The absorption maximum of CO2 adsorbed onto Ca-montmorillonite is 4.22 microns above 150-160K and 4.26 microns when cooler, similar to the absorption feature of CO2 in the nonice materials on the Galilean and Saturnian satellites.

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