A deep Aurum reservoir: Stable compounds of two bulk-immiscible metals under pressure

TL;DR

This study uses density-functional methods to identify stable Fe-Au compounds at high pressures, revealing their potential role in Earth's interior composition, geodynamics, and seismic properties.

Contribution

It is the first to predict stable Fe-Au compounds under high pressure, showing how gold can form compounds with iron deep within Earth.

Findings

Identified three stable Fe-Au compounds at pressures up to 210 GPa.

Discovered an orthorhombic AuFe₄ phase with ferromagnetic properties.

Suggested Fe-Au compounds could influence Earth's core and mantle properties.

Abstract

The Earth's crust is known to be depleted of gold, among other slightly heavy noble metals transported by magma from the Earth's mantle to the crust. The bulk silicate Earth (BSE) model also suggests significant depletion of Au in the silicate mantle itself, which cannot be explained by the amount of Au in the mantle's magma. This implies that Au could remain in the lower mantle and form stable compounds, especially with iron, which is the predominant element within the core. While Fe does not form binary compounds or a bulk alloy with Au under ambient conditions, it may do so at the elevated pressures found in the Earth's interior. Here, using density-functional methods, we investigated the possibility of identifying stable, binary Fe-Au compounds at pressures up to 210 GPa. We found three such Fe-Au compounds, which are stabilized by pressure and notable electron transfer, including an orthorhombic AuFe$_4$ phase that is ferromagnetic in nature with Au possessing a significant magnetic moment. While our results suggest that thermal convection due to the conductivities and the heat flux from the Fe-Au compounds could be an energy source to power the Earth's geodynamo, they also point towards changes in Au's chemical properties, as it can exist as either an anion or cation under pressure. In addition, the sound velocity and the density predicted for the various Fe-Au compounds suggest that they could shed light on the composition of the core-mantle boundary and the Earth's core, while demonstrating how the presence of trace amounts of Au could influence agreement with seismic data.