A high-resolution neutron powder diffraction study of ammonia dihydrate (ND3⋅2D2O) phase I

Abstract

We have measured the thermal expansivity of ammonia dihydrate (ND3⋅2D2O) phase I from 4.2 to 174 K at ambient pressure, and the incompressibility at 174 K from 0 to 0.45 GPa, using time-of-flight neutron powder diffraction. The unit cell volume as a function of temperature, V(T), was fitted with a Grüneisen approximation to the zero-pressure equation of state (with the lattice vibrational energy calculated from a double-Debye model fitted to heat capacity data) having the following parameters at zero pressure and temperature: V0,0=356.464±0.005 Å3, (K0,0/γ)=7.163±0.024 GPa, and K0,0′=5.41±0.33 (where VP,T is the unit cell volume at pressure P and temperature T, KP,T is the isothermal bulk modulus, KP,T′ is its first pressure derivative, and γ is the Grüneisen ratio). The two Debye temperatures are θDA=165±3 K and θDB=729±4 K. The unit cell volume at 174 K as a function of pressure, V(P), was fitted with a third-order Birch–Murnaghan equation of state having the following parameters: V0,174=365.69±0.16 Å3, K0,174=7.02±0.25 GPa, and K0,174′=9.56±1.28. The volume thermal expansion coefficient, αV, at 174 K and atmospheric pressure is 281.3×10−6 K−1. The proton disorder manifested at high homologous temperatures is seen to be frozen in, on the time scale of these experiments, down to 4.2 K. A high-pressure polymorph of ammonia dihydrate was observed following melting of the sample at 179 K and 0.46 GPa.