Discovery of a low-density filled-ice phase in nitrogen hydrate at high pressure

Selene Berni; Sophie Espert; Tomasz Poreba; Simone Di Cataldo; Richard Gaal; Gabriel Tobie; Erwan Le Menn; Thomas C. Hansen; Roberto Bini; Livia Eleonora Bove

arXiv · 2508.09771

Discovery of a low-density filled-ice phase in nitrogen hydrate at high pressure

Selene Berni·Sophie Espert·Tomasz Poreba·Simone Di Cataldo·Richard Gaal·Gabriel Tobie·Erwan Le Menn·Thomas C. Hansen·Roberto Bini·Livia Eleonora Bove

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Abstract

We map the high-pressure phase diagram of nitrogen hydrate up to 16 GPa at room temperature by combining neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and crystal structure prediction. We reveal a rich sequence of structural transformations, from sI/sII clathrates to hexagonal (sH) and tetragonal (sT) phases, culminating in a previously unknown orthorhombic filled-ice structure above 1.8 GPa in the Pnma space group, which we designate as NH-V. This new phase cannot be indexed to any known ice frameworks - such as the high-pressure methane hydrates MH-III (Imma) or MH-IV (Pmcn) - and exhibits a density approximately 30% lower than that of stable ice VII, pointing to distinctive water-nitrogen interactions. Our results refine the understanding of nitrogen hydrate behavior under extreme conditions and demonstrate the propensity of nitrogen and water to form stable filled-ice structures up to 16 GPa, with important implications for planetary science.

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Selene Berni, Sophie Espert, Tomasz Poreba, Simone Di Cataldo, Richard Gaal, Gabriel Tobie, Erwan Le Menn, Thomas C. Hansen, Roberto Bini, Livia Eleonora Bove. 2025-08-13. Discovery of a low-density filled-ice phase in nitrogen hydrate at high pressure. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09771

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