Raman spectroscopic investigations on natural samples from the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 311: indications for heterogeneous compositions in hydrate crystals.

Natural gas hydrates usually are found in the form of structure I, encasing predominantly methane in the hydrate lattices as guest molecules, sometimes also minor amount of higher hydrocarbons, CO2 or H2S. Raman spectroscopy is an approved tool to determine the composition of the hydrate phase. Thus, in this study Raman spectroscopic analyses have been applied to hydrate samples obtained from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 311 in two different approaches: studying the samples randomly taken from the hydrate core, and--as a new application--mapping small areas on the surface of clear hydrate crystals. The results obtained imply that the gas composition of hydrate, in terms of relative concentrations of CH4 and H2S, is not homogeneous over a core or even within a crystal. The mapping method yielded results with very high lateral resolution, indicating the coexistence of different phases with the same structure but different compositions within a hydrate crystal.

Raman spectra of gas hydrates--differences and analogies to ice 1h and (gas saturated) water.

It is generally accepted that Raman spectroscopic investigations of gas hydrates provide vital information regarding the structure of the hydrate, hydrate composition and cage occupancies, but most research is focused on the vibrational spectra of the guest molecules. We show that the shape and position of the Raman signals of the host molecules (H(2)O) also contain useful additional information. In this study, Raman spectra (200-4000 cm(-1)) of (mixed) gas hydrates with variable compositions and different structures are presented. The bands in the OH stretching region (3000-3800 cm(-1)), the O-H bending region (1600-1700 cm(-1)) and the O-O hydrogen bonded stretching region (100-400 cm(-1)) are compared with the corresponding bands in Raman spectra of ice Ih and liquid water. The interpretation of the differences and similarities with respect to the crystal structure and possible interactions between guest and host molecules are presented.