Gas hydrates are crystalline forms of water that contain many gas molecule inclusions. Each gas hydrate has a unique molecular-scale structure in which a gas molecule is trapped by a "cage" structure consisting of H2O molecules. Until now, the thermodynamically stability and the structural properties of gas hydrates have been investigated for a lot of gas species by experimental studies. However, the growth mechanism of gas hydrates at the molecular scale, especially the mechanism of cage formation, is still poorly understood. This is because the molecular-scale growth mechanism of gas hydrates is complicated and difficult to elucidate experimentally.
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