Evaporation in equilibrium, in vacuum, and in hydrogen gas

Evaporation experiments were conducted for SiO2 in three different conditions: in equilibrium, in vacuum, and in hydrogen gas. Evaporation rate in vacuum is about two orders of magnitude smaller than that in equilibrium, which is consistent with previous works. The rate in hydrogen gas changes depending on hydrogen pressure. The rate at 10 exp -7 bar of hydrogen pressure is as small as that of free evaporation, but at 10 exp -5 bar of hydrogen pressure it is larger than that in equilibrium. In equilibrium and in vacuum, the evaporation rate is limited by decomposition of SiO2 on the crystal surface, but it is limited by a diffusion process for evaporation in hydrogen gas. Therefore, evaporation rate of minerals in the solar nebula can be shown neither by that in equilibrium nor by that in vacuum. The maximum temperature of the solar nebula at the midplane at 2-3 AU where chondrites are believed to have originated is calculated to be as low as 150 K, 1500 K, or in between them. The temperature is, in any case, not high enough for total evaporation of the interstellar materials. Therefore, evaporation of interstellar materials is one of the most important processes for the origin and fractionation of solid materials. The fundamental process of evaporation of minerals has been intensively studied for these several years. Those experiments were carried out either in equilibrium or in vacuum; however, evaporation in the solar nebula is in hydrogen (and much smaller amount of helium) gas. In order to investigate evaporation rate and compositional (including isotopic) fractionation during evaporation, vaporization experiments for various minerals in various conditions are conducted. At first, SiO2 was adopted for a starting material, because thermochemical data and its nature of congruent vaporization are well known. Experiments were carried out in a vacuum furnace system.