Depletion of gaseous CO in protoplanetary disks by surface-energy-regulated ice formation

Empirical constraints of fundamental properties of protoplanetary disks are essential for understanding planet formation and planetary properties1,2. Carbon monoxide (CO) gas is often used to constrain disk properties3. However, estimates show that the CO gas abundance in disks is depleted relative to expected values4–7, and models of various disk processes impacting the CO abundance could not explain this depletion on observed ~1 Myr timescales8–14. Here we demonstrate that surface energy effects on particles in disks, such as the Kelvin effect, that arise when ice heterogeneously nucleates onto an existing particle can efficiently trap CO in its ice phase. In previous ice formation models, CO gas was released when small ice-coated particles were lofted to warmed disk layers. Our model can reproduce the observed abundance, distribution and time evolution of gaseous CO in the four most studied protoplanetary disks7. We constrain the solid and gaseous CO inventory at the midplane and disk diffusivities and resolve inconsistencies in estimates of the disk mass—three crucial parameters that control planetary formation.