Compression behavior of Fe-Si-H alloys

Abstract:

Although the light elements in the Earth’s core are still enigmatic, hydrogen has recently been receiving much attention. Planetary formation theory suggested that a large amount of water, much more than is in the oceans, could have been brought to the Earth during its accretion. Hydrogen is a strong siderophile element and could be incorporated into the core as a consequence of a reaction between water and molten iron in a magma ocean [Okuchi, 1997 Science]. Nevertheless, the effect of hydrogen on the property of iron is not well known so far. Here, we have experimentally examined the compression behavior of hcp Fe_0.88Si_0.12H_x (6.5 wt.% Si) at two different hydrogen concentrations (x = 0.7 and 0.9). Fe_0.88Si_0.12 foil was loaded into a diamond-anvil cell, and then liquid hydrogen was introduced to a sample chamber below 20 K. Hydrogenation occurred upon thermal annealing below 1500 K at 25–62 GPa, and hcp Fe_0.88Si_0.12H_x was obtained as a single phase. Unlike the Fe-H alloy, hydrogen did not fully occupy the octahedral sites even under hydrogen-saturated conditions. Two compression curves, one from 25 to 136 GPa, and the other from 62 to 128 GPa, were obtained at room temperature. While the effect of hydrogen on the compressibility of iron has been controversial in earlier experimental studies [Hirao et al., 2004 GRL; Pépin et al., 2014 PRL], our data indicate that the compressibility of Fe_0.88Si_0.12H_x alloy does not change with changing hydrogen content from x = 0 to 0.9. Such compression behavior observed is consistent with the recent ab initio calculations for hcp Fe-H alloys by Caracas[2015 GRL]. The extrapolation of present data to the outer core pressure and temperature range, assuming thermal expansivity is the same as that for iron and there is no density difference between solid and liquid, shows that the density of Fe_0.88Si_0.12H_0.3 matches the PREM in the whole outer core within 1%.