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At least 235 records · Page 13
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Competitive Sorption of H 2 O and CO 2 in Clay Mineral Interlayers

The first-reported competitive CO 2 –H 2 O sorption isotherms on a naturally occurring expandable clay mineral (saponite) exchanged with Na, K, and Cs at near ambient CO 2 concentrations (1% CO 2 ) are reported by combining ATR-FTIR spectroscopy with gravimetric sorption methods. Little CO 2 sorption was observed at high relative humidity (RH) but increased significantly at low RH. Unlike prior work where CO 2 sorption was reported on samples that were previously subjected to heating and/or evacuation treatment to remove sorbed H 2 O, this study manipulated CO 2 sorption by controlling RH. CO 2 sorption increased in the order Cs- > K- > Na-exchanged saponite and was anticorrelated with the Gibbs energy of hydration of the exchangeable cation. As expected, H 2 O sorption followed the opposite trend, with increased H 2 O sorption occurring in the order Na > K > Cs. The amount of CO 2 sorbed using 1 atm CO 2 (p/p o = 1.0) ranged from 50 to 30 mg CO 2 /g clay and from 1.25 to 0.8 mg CO2 /g clay for 1% CO 2 (p/p o = 0.01) in N 2 . The sensitivity of the ATR-FTIR measurements is demonstrated by detecting the CO 2 stretch of adsorbed CO 2 from air containing 500 ppmv CO 2 . The spectral features of sorbed CO 2 were minimally affected by the nature of the exchangeable cation or variations in H 2 O content. However, the position of the HOH bending band shifted significantly from 1638 to 1610 cm –1 as H 2 O content decreased, reflecting changes in intermolecular hydrogen bonding between H 2 O molecules in the saponite interlayer. The shift in position of the HOH bending band to lower energy was coincident with increased CO 2 sorption. CO 2 sorption in clay mineral interlayers is consistent with sorption on weakly hydrated partially hydrophobic sites found on low charge density smectites and is enhanced by lower RH and by the presence of weakly hydrated exchangeable cations like Cs + or K + . In conclusion, the greatest CO 2 sorption occurs on Cs-saponite because this is the least hydrated cation of the three used in the study and indicates that CO2 sorption occurs on the neutral portion of the siloxane surface.

Johnston, Cliff T. [Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Understanding Differences in Water Adsorption Isotherms: Structural Variations, Force Fields, and Monte Carlo Simulation Approaches

Accurate prediction of water adsorption in micro- and mesoporous materials with hydrophobic pores is essential for the design and characterization of advanced adsorbent materials for separation and energy applications. Here, we assess the reproducibility and consistency of water adsorption isotherms in two microporous all-silica MFI zeolite structures (MFI-K and MFI-O) using two different zeolite force fields and three simulation approaches: grand canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC), Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo (GEMC), and transition matrix Monte Carlo (TMMC). We demonstrate that consistent treatment of the bulk fluid phase in GCMC and TMMC simulations is critical for reconciling isotherms across methods, and we construct simulation-based equations of state for the TIP4P water model to enable rigorous fugacity-to-pressure conversions. Large shifts in the isotherms are observed for two zeolite force fields developed using different parametrization strategies, with the GCS force field representing implicitly a defect-containing all-silica zeolite, whereas the TraPPE-zeo force field accurately represents an essentially defect-free all-silica zeolite. While water in the van Koningsveld structure of MFI exhibits a first-order phase transition and condensation-like step for adsorption near room temperature, water in the Olson structure of MFI displays continuous adsorption, attributed to differences in the adsorption free energy landscapes. Structural analysis reveals that small geometric variations, particularly Si–O–Si bond angles near the strongest adsorption sites, lead to these substantial differences in adsorption behavior. Furthermore, our results highlight the sensitivity of simulated water adsorption isotherms in hydrophobic frameworks to seemingly small differences in the framework structures, force field parametrization, and simulation approaches.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

ALD with Alternative Coreactants: Which Work, Which Do Not, and Why

In this paper, we present a combined experimental and theoretical study that systematically evaluates a series of alcohols (i.e., primary, secondary, and tertiary) as coreactants for trimethylaluminum (TMA)-based atomic layer deposition (ALD) of Al 2 O 3 . We employed in situ quartz crystal microbalance techniques and ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to probe growth across a range of temperatures from T = 120 to 285 °C. Dispersion-inclusive hybrid density functional theory was employed to identify potential reaction pathways and compute corresponding Gibbs free-energy barriers and rate coefficients. Experimentally on an Al 2 O 3 surface, sustained thin-film growth, where the rate is constant over many cycles, was only observed with tertiary alcohols (tert-butanol and 2-methyl-2-butanol) at elevated temperatures (e.g., T = 285 °C); for tert-butanol specifically, sustained growth also occurred at T = 240 °C, with no sustained growth at or below T = 210 °C. Growth using primary and secondary alcohols decayed to a negligible value after only 2–3 cycles on an Al 2 O 3 surface at all tested temperatures. Intentional trace additions of H 2 O to anhydrous alcohols restored sustained growth but at reduced deposition rates relative to pure H 2 O. Theoretical analysis supports a bimolecular alkoxy β-H elimination mechanism as the primary reaction pathway: initiated by the formation of a bound alkoxy species, the subsequent β-H elimination step is rate-determining, with a barrier that systematically decreases as the degree of the alcohol coreactant is increased from primary to secondary to tertiary. Computed rate coefficients (k) also indicate a strong temperature dependence (with k increasing by ∼4–5 orders of magnitude from T = 120 to 285 °C) and are consistent with the experimental observation that only tertiary alcohols lead to steady thin-film growth at elevated temperatures. This integrated approach establishes why only certain alcohols can sustain Al 2 O 3 ALD and delivers a predictive framework for identifying effective alcohol coreactants.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Chemistry Informed Machine Learning-Based Heat Capacity Prediction of Solid Mixed Oxides

Knowing heat capacity is crucial for modeling temperature changes with the absorption and release of heat and for calculating the thermal energy storage capacity of oxide mixtures with energy applications. The current prediction methods (ab initio simulations, computational thermodynamics, and the Neumann–Kopp rule) are computationally expensive, not fully generalizable, or inaccurate. Machine learning has the potential of being fast, accurate, and generalizable, but it has been scarcely used to predict mixture properties, particularly for mixed oxides. Here, we demonstrate a method for the generalizable prediction of heat capacity of solid oxide pseudobinary mixtures using heat capacity data obtained from computational thermodynamics and descriptors from ab initio databases. Further, models trained through this workflow achieved an error (mean absolute error of 0.43 J mol –1 K –1 ) lower than the uncertainty in differential scanning calorimetry measurements, and the workflow can be extended to predict other properties derived from the Gibbs free energy and for higher-order oxide mixtures.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Elucidating the Mechanism of Helium Evaporation from Liquid Water

Here, we investigate the evaporation of trace amounts of helium solvated in liquid water using molecular dynamics simulations and theory. Consistent with experimental observations, we find a super-Maxwellian distribution of kinetic energies of evaporated helium. This excess of kinetic energy over typical thermal expectations is explained by an effective continuum theory of evaporation based on a Fokker–Planck equation, parametrized molecularly by a potential of mean force and position-dependent friction. Using this description, we find that helium evaporation is strongly influenced by the friction near the interface, which is anomalously small near the Gibbs dividing surface due to the ability of the liquid–vapor interface to deform around the gas particle. Our reduced description provides a mechanistic interpretation of trace gas evaporation as the motion of an underdamped particle in a potential subject to a viscous environment that varies rapidly across the air–water interface. From it we predict the temperature dependence of the excess kinetic energy of evaporation, which is yet to be measured.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Mechanistic Insights into Acetate Selectivity on Intermetallic CuPd(110) in CO Reduction

Experimental studies demonstrate that CuPd(110) uniquely favors acetate formation during CO reduction (CORR), contrasting with the preference for ethylene on Cu surfaces. To elucidate this selectivity, we employed explicit solvation density functional theory (DFT) calculations to investigate the reaction mechanism from both thermodynamic and kinetic angles. Here, our findings reveal that on CuPd(110), the acetate-pathway intermediate H 2 CCO is thermodynamically favored at experimental conditions, while CHCHO─a precursor to ethylene─is preferred on Cu(111). Beyond thermodynamics, we find that H 2 CCO is kinetically accessible under the experimental conditions on CuPd(110), aiding acetate formation. Electron density difference analyses further corroborate distinct protonation preferences supporting this mechanism. We propose a thermodynamic screening parameter based on the Gibbs free energy, G H 2 CCO < G CHCHO , as a guide for designing Cu-based catalysts with enhanced acetate selectivity. These results offer critical mechanistic insights into the CORR product distribution and a rational framework for future catalyst design.

Acetate↗
DOE OSTI2022

Iodination of PEGylated Polymers Counteracts the Inhibition of Fibrinogen Adsorption by PEG

Poly(ethylene glycol), PEG, known to inhibit protein adsorption, is widely used on the surfaces of biomedical devices when biofilm formation is undesirable. Poly(desaminotyrosyl-tyrosine ethyl ester carbonate), PDTEC, PC for short, has been a promising coating polymer for insertion devices, and it has been anticipated that PEG plays a similar role if it is copolymerized with PC. Earlier studies show that no fibrinogen (Fg) is adsorbed onto PC polymers with PEG beyond the threshold weight percentage. This is attributed to the phase separation of PEG. Further, iodination of the PC units in the PC polymer, (I 2 PC), has been found to counteract this Fg-repulsive effect by PEG. Here, in this study, we employ surface-sensitive X-ray techniques to demonstrate the surface affinity of Fg toward the air–water interface, particularly in the presence of self-assembled PC-based film, in which its constituent polymer units are assumed to be much more mobile as a free-standing film. Fg is found to form a Gibbs monolayer with its long axis parallel to the aqueous surface, thus maximizing its interactions with hydrophobic interfaces. It influences the amount of insoluble, surface-bound I 2 PC likely due to the desorption of the formed Fg–I 2 PC complex and/or the penetration of Fg onto the I 2 PC film. The results show that the phase behavior at the liquid–polymer interface shall be taken into account for the surface behavior of bulk polymers surrounded by tissue. The ability of PEG units rearranging into a protein-blocking layer, rather than its mere presence in the polymer, is the key to antifouling characteristics desired for polymeric coating on insertion devices.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Computational Insights into Phase Equilibria Between Wide-Gap Semiconductors and Contact Materials

Novel wide-band-gap semiconductors are needed for next-generation power electronics, but there is a gap between a promising material and a functional device. Finding stable (metal) contacts is one of the major challenges that is currently dealt with mainly via trial and error. Herein, we computationally investigate the thermochemistry and phase coexistence at the junction between three wide-gap semiconductors, ..beta..-Ga2O3, GeO2, and GaN, and possible contact materials. The pool of possible contacts includes 47 elemental metals and a set of 4 common, n-type transparent conducting oxides (ZnO, TiO2, SnO2, and In2O3). We use first-principles thermodynamics to model the Gibbs free energies of chemical reactions as a function of gas pressure (pO2/pN2) and equilibrium temperature. We deduce whether a semiconductor/contact interface will be stable at relevant conditions or a chemical reaction between them is to be expected, possibly influencing the long-term reliability and performance of devices. We generally find that most elemental metals tend to oxidize or nitridize and form various interface oxide/nitride layers. Exceptions include select late- and post-transition metals and, in the case of GaN, also the alkali metals, which are predicted to exhibit stable coexistence, although in many cases at relatively low gas partial pressures. Similar is true for the transparent conducting oxides, for which, in most cases, we predict a preference toward forming ternary oxides when in contact with ..beta..-Ga2O3 and GeO2. The only exception is SnO2, which we find to form stable contacts with both oxides. Finally, we show how the same approach can be used to predict gas partial pressure vs temperature phase diagrams to help direct synthesis of ternary compounds. We believe these results provide a valuable guidance in selecting contact materials to wide-gap semiconductors and suitable growth conditions.

contact materials↗
DOE OSTI2025

Interplay Between Metastability and Mechanically Induced Structural Instability in CsPbBr 3 Photovoltaic Perovskite

An atomic-level understanding of the underlying structural metastability is still absent in halide perovskite photovoltaic systems. Focusing on the model material CsPbBr 3 , the impact of mechanically induced atomic structure alteration is elucidated through structural modeling and X-ray diffraction measurements. Sudden Cs–Br bond breaking drives the system metastability, where the first-order transition arises from cation-halide bond strain relief by severing the corner connectivity of the PbBr 6 units. The pressure–volume and entropy terms govern the Gibbs free-energy landscape in halide perovskites. In conclusion, metastability is revealed as a critical factor limiting the performance of lead halide perovskites under extreme but natural environments.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Predicting a Key Catalyst-Performance Descriptor for Supported Metal Nanoparticles: Metal Chemical Potential

The chemical potential of metal atoms in supported nanoparticles provides a convenient descriptor of their performance as heterogeneous catalysts that captures the effects of particle size, support and alloying. Based on microcalorimetric measurements, the chemical potential is shown in this work to be predictable as a function of monometallic particle diameter and the adhesion energy of the particle to the support, and, for oxide supports, this adhesion energy correlates predictably with metal oxophilicity. These correlations provide predictions of metal chemical potential that can enable catalyst design. They also suggest an improvement in the Gibbs-Thomson relation for free-standing nanoparticles, whether metals or molecular solids.

metal/oxide interface↗
DOE OSTI2026

Effect of Strength of Soluble and Solid Acid Catalysts on Selectivity in Aldol Reactions

Aldol reactions can follow the classical condensation path and produce an α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound and water, however in some cases, aldol chemistry may be steered towards a fission that gives an olefin and a carboxylic acid. This investigation examines how the strength of Brønsted acid sites—both in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis—controls these two pathways and their kinetics. The cross-aldol reaction between benzaldehyde and 3-pentanone served as test case. Batch reactions, conducted in toluene as solvent at a temperature of 140 °C under autogenous pressure, were analyzed by GC and in situ ATR-FTIR spectroscopy to determine product distributions and rate constants for condensation and fission pathways. A series of soluble acids including a family of sulfonic acids mostly favored the condensation pathway, with formic acid as the weakest in the series by its pKa being inactive for aldol chemistry. Significant amounts of fission products were rare except for the known selectivity of phosphoric acid, and the circumstances were difficult to delineate. For the sulfonic acid family, the logarithm of the first-order condensation rate constants scaled only roughly with pKa (water) values, whereas a good correlation was obtained with calculated deprotonation Gibbs energies in toluene. A series of H-forms of isomorphously substituted beta zeolites, HESiBEA with E = Al, Ga, Fe, or B, favored the fission pathway. Site density and site strength were characterized by calorimetric measurements of the heats of adsorption of isopropylamine, which decreased in the order Al > Ga, Fe > B. The logarithm of the site-normalized first-order fission rate constants scaled roughly with the heats of adsorption and correlated excellently with reported deprotonation energies. In conclusion, acid strength mainly affects activity and can be seen as a pre-requisite for either aldol condensation or fission chemistry, whereas additional, yet to be full clarified catalyst properties and reaction conditions are required to steer aldol chemistry towards fission selectivity.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2020

Unexpected “Spontaneous” Evolution of Catalytic, MOF-Supported Single Cu(II) Cations to Catalytic, MOF-Supported Cu(0) Nanoparticles

A desirable feature of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is their well-defined structural periodicity and the presence of well-defined catalyst grafting sites (e.g., reactive –OH and –OH 2 groups) that can support single-site heterogeneous catalysts. However, one should not overlook the potential role of residual organic moieties, specifically formate ions that can occupy the catalyst anchoring sites during MOF synthesis. Here we show how these residual formate species in a Zr-based MOF, NU-1000, critically alter the structure, redox capability, and catalytic activity of postsynthetically incorporated Cu(II) ions. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction measurements established that there are two structurally distinct types of Cu(II) ions in NU-1000: one type with residual formate and one without. In NU-1000 with formate, Cu(II) solely binds to the node via the formate-unoccupied, bridging μ 3 –OH, whereas in the formate-free case, it displaces protons from two node hydroxo ligands and resides close to the terminal –OH 2 . Under an inert atmosphere, node-bound formate facilitates the unanticipated reduction of isolated Cu(II) to nanoparticulate Cu(0)—a behavior which is essentially absent in the formate-free analogue because no other sacrificial reductant is present. When the two MOFs were tested as benzyl alcohol oxidation catalysts, we observed that residual formate boosts the catalytic turnover frequency. Density functional calculations showed that node-bound formate acts as a sacrificial two-electron donor and assists in reducing Cu(II) to Cu(0) by a nonradical pathway. The negative Gibbs free energy of reaction (ΔG) and enthalpy of reaction (ΔH) indicate that the reduction is thermodynamically favorable. Here, the work presented here highlights how the often-neglected residual formate prevalent in nearly all zirconium-based MOFs can significantly modulate the properties of supported catalysts.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantum Machine-Learning for Eigenstate Filtration in Two-Dimensional Materials

Quantum machine-learning algorithms have emerged to be a promising alternative to their classical counterparts as they leverage the power of quantum computers. Such algorithms have been developed to solve problems like electronic structure calculations of molecular systems and spin models in magnetic systems. However, the discussion in all these recipes focuses specifically on targeting the ground state. Herein we demonstrate a quantum algorithm that can filter any energy eigenstate of the system based on either symmetry properties or a predefined choice of the user. The workhorse of our technique is a shallow neural network encoding the desired state of the system with the amplitude computed by sampling the Gibbs–Boltzmann distribution using a quantum circuit and the phase information obtained classically from the nonlinear activation of a separate set of neurons. We show that the resource requirements of our algorithm are strictly quadratic. To demonstrate its efficacy, we use state filtration in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides which are hitherto unexplored in any flavor of quantum simulations. We implement our algorithm not only on quantum simulators but also on actual IBM-Q quantum devices and show good agreement with the results procured from conventional electronic structure calculations. We thus expect our protocol to provide a new alternative in exploring the band structures of exquisite materials to usual electronic structure methods or machine-learning techniques that are implementable solely on a classical computer.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Influence of 1-Butene Adsorption on the Dimerization Activity of Single Metal Cations on UiO-66 Nodes

Grafting metal cations to missing linker defect sites in zirconium-based metal–organic frameworks, such as UiO-66, produces a uniquely well-defined and homotopic catalytically active site. We present here the synthesis and characterization of a group of UiO-66-supported metal catalysts, M-UiO-66 (M = Ni, Co, Cu, and Cr), for the catalytic dimerization of alkenes. The hydrogen–deuterium exchange via deuterium oxide adsorption followed by infrared spectroscopy showed that the last molecular water ligand desorbs from the sites after evacuation at 300 °C leading to M(OH)-UiO-66 structures. Adsorption of 1-butene is studied using calorimetry and density functional theory techniques to characterize the interactions of the alkene with metal cation sites that are found active for alkene oligomerization. For the most active Ni-UiO-66, the removal of molecular water from the active site significantly increases the 1-butene adsorption enthalpy and almost doubles the catalytic activity for 1-butene dimerization in comparison to the presence of water ligands. Other M-UiO-66 (M = Co, Cu, and Cr) exhibit 1–3 orders of magnitude lower catalytic activities compared to Ni-UiO-66. The catalytic activities correlate linearly with the Gibbs free energy of 1-butene adsorption. Furthermore, density functional theory calculations probing the Cossee–Arlman mechanism for all metals support the differences in activity, providing a molecular level understanding of the metal site as the active center for 1-butene dimerization.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Coupling Amorphization and Compositional Optimization of Ternary Metal Phosphides toward High-Performance Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Amorphous materials, with abundant active sites and unique electronic configurations, have the potential to outperform their crystalline counterparts in high-performance catalysis for clean energy. However, their synthesis and compositional optimization remain underexplored due to the strict conditions required for their formation. Here, in this study, we report the synthesis of ternary platinum-nickel-phosphorus (PtNiP) amorphous nanoparticles (ANPs) within milliseconds by flash Joule heating, which features ultrafast cooling that enables the vitrification of metal precursors. Through compositional optimization, the Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption for Pt 4 Ni 4 P 1 ANPs is optimized at 0.02 eV, an almost ideal value, even surpassing that of the benchmark metallic platinum catalyst. As a result, the PtNiP ANPs exhibited superior activity in electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution in acid electrolyte (η 10 ∼ 14 mV, Tafel slope ∼ 18 mV dec –1 , and mass activity 5× higher than state-of-the-art Pt/C). Life-cycle assessment and technoeconomic analysis suggest that, compared to existing processes, our approach enables notable reductions in greenhouse gas emission, energy consumption, and production cost for practical electrolyzer catalyst manufacturing.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Controlled Placement of Trivalent Heteroatoms in MFI Zeolite Frameworks Using Structure-Directing Agents

MFI zeolites contain distinct confining pore environments, either smaller (∼0.55 nm) channels or larger (∼0.70 nm) intersections. The substitution of trivalent heteroatoms generates Brønsted acid sites of varying acid strength, which, together with their location within different pore environments, dictates the stability of transition states via electrostatic (ion-pair) and van der Waals interactions. Here, we report that structure-directing agents (SDAs) that control Al 3+ substitutional patterns during MFI crystallization analogously position other trivalent heteroatoms (Ga 3+ , Fe 3+ , B 3+ ), altering the distribution of acid sites between channels and intersections, as probed by low-temperature (403 K) toluene methylation kinetics. Heteroatom-substituted MFI crystallized with tetrapropylammonium result in low selectivity toward p-xylene (<30%), while those crystallized using (co-)SDAs containing peripheral hydrogen-bonding groups (e.g., ethylenediamine) show high p-xylene selectivity (∼80%). These selectivities are consistent with DFT-calculated Gibbs free energy barriers for intersection-dominant and channel-dominant active site distributions, respectively. Transition states to form each xylene isomer are similar in size and charge; thus, their rate constants decrease with acid strength similarly, causing isomer selectivity to depend strongly on confinement but not on acid strength. These generalizable synthetic strategies enable independently controlling acid site strength and location in MFI zeolites and, in turn, catalytic rates and selectivities.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

High-Pressure Melting Experiments of Fe 3 C and a Thermodynamic Model of Fe-C Liquids for the Earth's Core

Melting experiments of Fe 3 C were conducted to 85 GPa in laser-heated diamond anvil cells with in situ X-ray diffraction and post-experiment textural observation. From the determined pressure-temperature conditions of the melting curve for Fe 3 C, together with literature data on the melting point of diamond and eutectic point of the system Fe-Fe 3 C/Fe 7 C 3 under high pressures, we established a self-consistent thermodynamic model for high-pressure melting of the system Fe-C including the mixing parameters for liquids. The results show that mixing of Fe and C liquids is negatively nonideal from 1 bar to the pressure at the center of the Earth. The departure from ideal mixing becomes progressively larger with increasing pressure, which leads to greatly stabilized liquids under core pressures. The modeled carbon content in eutectic melts under core pressures is 3.3–4.4 wt%. From the Gibbs free energy, we derived an internally consistent parameters for Fe-C outer cores which included the crystallizing points at their bottoms, isentropic thermal profiles, and densities and longitudinal seismic wave speeds (Vp). While the addition of carbon in excess of the eutectic melt composition effectively reduces the density of iron liquid, the Vp of iron liquid is not greatly changed. Therefore, the low density and high Vp of PREM relative to pure iron cannot be reconciled by an Fe-C liquid. Therefore, the Earth's core cannot be approximated by the system Fe-C and should include another light element.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗