Structure and Density Comparison of Noble Gas Hydrates Encapsulating Xenon, Krypton and Argon.

Understanding the effect of guest species on the host framework is important for the development of structure-based properties of inclusion compounds. Herein, the crystal structures of the noble gas hydrates encapsulating Xe, Kr, and Ar were studied by powder X-ray diffraction measurements. The crystal structures and hydration numbers of these noble gas hydrates were solved by Rietveld refinements using optimized models with the direct-space technique. It was revealed that host cage size of these hydrates changed depending on the type of guest species even though their unit-cell parameters were the same. Based on the structure models obtained, the densities of Xe, Kr, and Ar gas hydrates were also determined to be 1.837, 1.445 and 1.097 g/cm3 at 93 K, respectively. Our findings, from a crystallographic point of view, may give insight into further understanding the thermodynamic stability and physical properties of gas hydrates encapsulating small guests.