Determine the mechanism of irreversible tholin particle consolidation

Determine whether the irreversible consolidation of Titan tholin particles after compression and decompression is caused by high interparticle forces, chemical diffusion across grain boundaries, or a combination of both.

Background

The study compresses tholin powder in a diamond anvil cell to eliminate pore space and obtain an optically homogeneous aggregate for Brillouin spectroscopy. After decompression, the sample remains transparent and its grain boundaries do not reappear, indicating irreversible particle consolidation.

The authors explicitly state that the available observations cannot discriminate between consolidation driven by strong interparticle forces, chemical diffusion across grain boundaries, or both mechanisms. Resolving this mechanism would clarify how sample preparation affects the measured aggregate elastic properties of tholins.