Speaker
Description
Simple molecular systems, like water, methane, ammonia, hydrogen, and their mixtures are of para-mount importance for many fields, ranging from energy storage applications to condensed matter and planetary physics [1-2]. These systems are widespread on Earth, in various planetary bodies in the solar system and in newly detected water-rich exoplanets, and constitute an incredibly rich gas resource to be exploited. Due to their relatively simple stoichiometry and electronic structure they also repre-sent key systems for the understanding the physical-chemical behavior of more complex molecular systems. Under the extremely broad range of pressure and temperature conditions experienced in planetary interiors these simple molecular systems and their mixtures display a rich phase diagram, anomalous dynamical, thermal and transport properties, super-ionicity, plasticity and enhanced quan-tum effects [3-12]. In this talk I will review our recent experimental results on the structure and the dynamics of simple molecular systems under extreme conditions probed by neutron, x-ray and light scattering techniques, and will discuss their impact for planetary modelling and energy applications.
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[2] W.L. Mao et al., Physics Today 60, 42 (2007).
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[4] L. E. Bove, R. Gaal, et al., PNAS 112, 8216 (2015).
[5] S. Klotz, L.E. Bove, et al., Sci. Rep. 6, 32040 (2016).
[6] U. L. Ranieri et al., Nature Com., 8, 1076 (2017).
[7] S. Schaack et al., JPC C 122 11159 (2018).
[8] U. L. Ranieri, et al. J. Phys. Chem. C, 123, 1888 (2019).
[9] S. Schaack et al., PNAS, 10.1073/pnas.1904911116 (2019).
[10] U. L. Ranieri, et al., Nature Com. 12: 195 (2021).
[11] M. Rescigno et al., under submission (2023).
[12] H. Zhang et al., J. Chem. Phys. Letters, in press (2023).
