Greg Stewart / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Artistic impression of the formation of diamond rain.
Under extremely high heat and pressure, water can be transformed into a superacid that produces diamonds. This can explain how planets like Uranus and Neptune have diamond rains.
A new study last week in arXiv revealed that the water can become a fluid superacid under extreme heat and pressure.
As the researchers explained to New Scientist, these conditions provide for the formation of diamonds They are only in the interior of the Earth and on cold planets like Uranus and Neptune.
“Under immense pressures and temperatures, water displays a remarkable property-it becomes an exceptionally potent acid, also known as ‘superacid’, which can be thousands of millions or even trilions of times stronger than sulfuric acid,” he said Flavio Siro Brigianofrom the University of Sorbonne, in France, who was one of the authors of the study.
This transformation into superacid seems to occur at temperatures between 1727 ° C and 2727 ° C and intense pressures of 22 to 69 gigapascal. For comparison, 2727 ° C is the temperature of the solar stains in the surface of the sun and 50 gigapascals would correspond to having 100 elephants at the tip of the finger.
The great conclusion of this study is that, under the same extreme conditions, the Super acid water can transform hydrocarbon molecules such as methane into diamond -like structures.
This aspect of water chemistry can prove previous investigations that suggest that giant iced planets – – have rain of diamonds.
In addition, overall water can also inspire future laboratory processes for or even replace traditional superstates in industrial processes such as oil refining.
As I said, to New Scientist, Arthur France-Lanord From the French National Center for Scientific Research, which was part of the investigation, the next big step will be to collect direct experimental tests of the Superican Water Chemistry.
The team is already exploring ways to do it in the laboratory – but to lower pressures and temperatures.
