Crystallographic Studies of Clathrate Hydrates. Part I

Abstract

Low-temperature neutron and X-ray diffraction studies show the gas hydrates of oxygen and nitrogen to be structure II (Fd3m), as recently found also for the hydrates of the small argon and krypton molecules. New lattice parameters of three structure I and 14 structure II hydrates from powder X-ray diffraction at 170 K are reported. The thermal expansion coefficient of tetrahydrofuran hydrate was determined from X-ray diffraction at some 50 temperatures between 18 and 263 K and found to be three times as great as for ice near 100 K and 30% higher near 250 K. Lattice parameters qf 40 type II clathrate hydrates are compared at 0°C and found to lie within 0.10 Å of 17.30 Å.