Earlier this year, NASA announced the new New Frontiers mission – Dragonfly – to be launched in 2026 on the course to Titan, Saturn's moon, to explore the surface. Chemically speaking, Titan features an exceptionally interesting environment. It has dense atmosphere and active photochemistry. The former NASA mission – Cassini – has detected over 30 different organic molecules. These molecules precipitate on the surface and solidify as molecular solids, cocrystals and/or clathrate hydrates, or Titanean minerals. Surprisingly, the crystal and local structure, as well as many physicochemical properties of many of these simple molecules remain unknown. For example, the crystal structure of propionitrile has not been reported, or the structure of many cocrystals. To get a glimpse of the how the surface of Titan could look like, we performed experiments in the laboratory and at synchrotron and neutron sources, mimicking the conditions on the moon (93 K, 1.45 atm, nitrogen atmosphere, ice surface). We have characterized a number of solids, such as molecular crystals and cocrystal, using various diffraction and total scattering techniques, as well as thermoanalytical methods. These results can help inform the Dragonfly endeavors, but also shine light of the physical chemistry of very simple molecules at cryogenic conditions.

Crystal and local structure of potential extraterrestrial minerals on Titan

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.