this material was found by displacement to be 1 284 the unit cell volume based on one molecule of lactate is formula wt 10 24 cc a 3 6 023 10 23 sg 308 92 grams mole 10 24 cc u00e5 3 6 023 10 23 molecules mole 1 284 399 4 u00e5 3 5 a portion of the solids generated in example 1 were dried as described in table 3 in each case the solids achieved a constant weight at their respective temperatures the samples were then submitted for raman spectroscopic analysis on a perkin elmer ftir series with nir ft raman accessory lims 0627 sop 008 07 fig1 a 1c are spectrum generated by raman spectrometry of ftir of three samples generally prepared as above samples 295 342 and 375 respectively note that as the temperature is increased the o u2014 h vibron from 3100 cm u2212 1 to 3600 cm u2212 1 decreases simultaneously the twin peaks in the neighborhood of 2942 cm u2212 1 and 2990 cm u2212 1 increase also the twin peaks in the neighborhood of 1429 cm u2212 1 and 1456 cm u2212 1 increase the region of 2965 cm u2212 1 to 2969 cm u2212 1 is known to represent anti symmetric stretching of the ch 3 portion of a molecule the 1465 cm u2212 1 to 1466 cm u2212 1 region is known to represent ch 3 deformation therefore as the water molecules are removed by drying the ch 3 portion of the molecule undergoes less inhibited structural changes this is consistent with the methane clathrate si structure also note that an sii clathrate would show a peak in the 3600 cm u2212 1 to 3100 cm u2212 1 region which is not.