Hydrogenation of silicon-bearing hexagonal close-packed iron and its implications for density deficits in the inner core

Mori, Yuichiro*; Kagi, Hiroyuki*; Aoki, Katsutoshi*; Takano, Masahiro*; Kakizawa, Sho*; Sano, Asami   ; Funakoshi, Kenichi*

To investigate silicon effects on the hydrogen-induced volume expansion of iron, neutron diffraction and X-ray diffraction experiments were conducted to examine hcp-FeSi under high pressures and high temperatures. Neutron diffraction experiments were performed on the deuterated hcp-FeSi at 13.5 GPa and 900 K, and at 12.1 GPa and 300 K. By combining the P-V-T equation of state of hcp-FeSi, present results indicate that the hydrogen-induced volume expansion of hcp-FeSi is 10% greater than that of pure hcp iron. Using the obtained values, we estimated the hydrogen content that would reproduce the density deficit in the inner core, which was 50% less than that without the effect of silicon. Possible hydrogen content, , in the inner core and the outer core was calculated to be 0.07 and 0.12-0.15, respectively, when reproducing the density deficit of the inner core with hcp-FeSiHx.