Considering how ubiquitous it is on earth, methane (natural gas) at the molecular level is a scientific unknown. To understand it and to manage it both as energy and as an environmental hazard, scientists need to know more about its molecular structure. A neutron diffraction study at the Spallation Neutrons and Pressure Diffractometer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has successfully mapped the structure of methane and water cages, known as clathrates, under more than half a million pounds of pressure per square inch. The researchers came up with a new potential - a new calculation of the repulsion force that exists between methane molecules in these cages - that indicated there were five methane molecule "guests" inside the enlarged polyhedral structures that emerged under the high-pressure conditions. - Agatha Bardoel, 865.574.0644, March 14, 2012
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