Clathrate, hydrates under pressure

When water comes in contact with simple gases and hydrocarbon molecules at ambient conditions, little happens. But at high pressure and low temperature, an icelike framework of hydrogen bonds can build polyhedral cages around guest molecules like methane, nitrogen, and argon to form clathrate hydrates (see box 1). Joseph Priestley may have first discovered the compounds, commonly called clathrates or gas hydrates, in 1778, using the cold winter evenings of Birmingham, England, to refrigerate his laboratory experiments on sulfur dioxide and water. However, because Priestley did not sufficiently document his observations, credit for discovery normally goes to Michael Faraday's boss, Sir Humphry Davy, whose research on the behavior of a mixture of chlorine and water at temperatures just above the freezing point of pure water was presented to the Royal Society of London in 1810. Since that time clathrate hydrates have evolved from a laboratory novelty to a major petroleum-industry problem, to an environmental challenge and possible energy resource.