Trapping of methanol, hydrogen cyanide, and n-hexane in water ice, above its transformation temperature to the crystalline form

HCN and n-C6H14 were found experimentally to be trapped in water ice, when codeposited with water vapor on a cold plate, at 140 K and CH3OH even at 160 K. At these temperatures at least part of the water ice is cystalline. These three gases have relatively high sublimation temperatures, whereas the gases studied earlier, Ar, Kr, Xe, CO, CH4, and N-2, which have lower sublimination temperatures, are trapped only in amorphous water ice, up to similar to 100 K. It seems that the major factor determining the efficiency of gas trapping by water ice, during codeposition of a gas-water vapor mixture on a cold plate, is the sublimation temperatures of the gases to be trapped. Those with a high sublimation temperature remain, during codeposition, longer in the pores of the water ice which are open to the surface, until they are covered by additional ice layers. Only methanol seems to form a clathrate hydrate, in agreement with the experimental results of D. Blake ct al, (1991), Science 254, 548-551), which points to the importance of the interaction of the gas molecules with the water molecules in the ice. Consequently, comets and icy satellites that were formed in the Jupiter-Saturn region and their subnebulae could trap CH3OH, HCN, and heavy hydrocarbons, whereas comets and icy satellites that were formed in the Uranus-Neptune region, at the outskirts of the Saturnian subnebulae (Titan), and beyond the planets in the Kuiper belt could trap also gases having lower sublimation temperatures. (C) 1997 Academic Press.