A clathrate or clathrate compound or cage compound's a chemical substance consisting of a lattice of one type of molecule trapping and containing a second type of molecule. The word clathrate's derived from the Latin clatratus meaning with bars or a lattice. An example of a clathrate's clathrate hydrate, a special type of gas hydrate in which a lattice of water molecules encloses molecules of a trapped gas. Large amounts of methane naturally frozen in this form have been discovered both in perm… (More on Clathrates)