Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 213, 103-127 (2012)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01666-3

Review

Energy landscape of clathrate hydrates

¹ Groupe de Spectroscopie Moléculaire, Institut des Sciences Moléculaires, UMR 5255 CNRS - Université de Bordeaux 1, 351 cours de la Libération, 33405 Talence Cedex, France
² Institut Laue Langevin, BP. 156, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, 38042 Grenoble, France
³ Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, BENSC, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin, Germany

^a e-mail: a.desmedt@ism.u-bordeaux1.fr
^b Present address: LASIR,UMR8516 CNRS-Univ. Lille 1, France

Received: 16 July 2012
Revised: 27 September 2012
Published online: 3 December 2012

Abstract

Clathrate hydrates are nanoporous crystalline materials made of a network of hydrogen-bonded water molecules (forming host cages) that is stabilized by the presence of foreign (generally hydrophobic) guest molecules. The natural existence of large quantities of hydrocarbon hydrates in deep oceans and permafrost is certainly at the origin of numerous applications in the broad areas of energy and environmental sciences and technologies (e.g. gas storage). At a fundamental level, their nanostructuration confers on these materials specific properties (e.g. their “glass-like” thermal conductivity) for which the host-guest interactions play a key role. These interactions occur on broad timescale and thus require the use of multi-technique approach in which neutron scattering brings unvaluable information. This work reviews the dynamical properties of clathrate hydrates, ranging from intramolecular vibrations to Brownian relaxations; it illustrates the contribution of neutron scattering in the understanding of the underlying factors governing chemical-physics properties specific to these nanoporous systems.