What is it about?
Chemistry 101 says polar and non-polar compounds don’t mix. Yet here, we show that hydrogen cyanide, which is more polar than water, can form co-crystals with methane and ethane, two of the most non-polar substances known. At sufficiently low temperatures, these molecules defy conventional chemistry!
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Photo by Pramod Tiwari on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Beyond reshaping our understanding of molecular compatibility at low temperatures, this discovery matters because hydrogen cyanide and small hydrocarbons are abundant on Saturn’s moon Titan. Their ability to mix may influence not just Titan’s chemistry, but also the physical evolution of its surface.
Perspectives
It is a really cool feeling to contribute to an interdisciplinary discovery that may help explain processes on a planetary—or should I say moonetary—scale! I hope this work will inspire and encourage more scientists to look beyond the familiar world of ambient conditions. There is so much to uncover about chemistry in more extreme environments, whether at high pressures, or, like here, at cryogenic temperatures.
Martin Rahm
Chalmers tekniska hogskola
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Hydrogen cyanide and hydrocarbons mix on Titan, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2507522122.
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