Argon retentivity of carbonaceous materials: feasibility of kerogen as a carrier phase of Q-noble gases in primitive meteorites

Abstract

Abstract Extremely large amounts of heavy noble gases are concentrated in phase Q, which seems to be a carbonaceous phase analogous to terrestrial Type III kerogen. Phase Q must have very high noble gas retentivity based on the presence of such extremely large amounts of heavy noble gases in a very minor fraction of the meteorite. To verify that kerogen is a carrier phase of Q-noble gases, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) using synchrotron radiation were carried on for kerogens (coals) and carbon allotropes that had been bombarded by 3-keV Ar ions, and the Ar retentivities of the two materials were compared. This comparison of the estimated Ar concentrations in the target materials revealed that carbon allotropes (graphite, fullerene, carbon nanotube, and diamond) have a much higher Ar retentivity than kerogens. This unexpected result clearly shows that the terrestrial kerogens tested in our study are not suitable as a carrier phase of Ar and, consequently, that phase Q may not be similar to the terrestrial kerogen tested. If heavy noble gases are really concentrated in carbonaceous components of primitive meteorites, phase Q may have a more ordered structure than terrestrial kerogen based on the fact that the greatest difference between terrestrial kerogen and carbon allotropes is the degree of order of the molecular structure.