I15-Extreme Conditions
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[9902, 8858, 17412]
Abstract: The atomic-scale structural evolution of Ga68.5In21·5Sn10 (wt. %) liquid alloy has been explored utilizing in-situ high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction from room temperature (293 K) to around the melting point. During the process of decreasing temperature, bond lengths of dominant atomic pairs decrease, whereas the total coordination numbers of the first nearest neighbor shell increase. This structural transition is ascribed to the redistribution of atoms and/or clusters and the decrease of vacancies induced by decreasing temperature. Our results are supportive for further understanding the atomic-scale structural evolution of liquid alloys at the low-temperature condition.
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Dec 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Open Access
Abstract: The high-pressure and high-temperature structural and chemical stability of ruthenium has been investigated via synchrotron X-ray diffraction using a resistively heated diamond anvil cell. In the present experiment, ruthenium remains stable in the hcp phase up to 150 GPa and 960 K. The thermal equation of state has been determined based upon the data collected following four different isotherms. A quasi-hydrostatic equation of state at ambient temperature has also been characterized up to 150 GPa. The measured equation of state and structural parameters have been compared to the results of ab initio simulations performed with several exchange-correlation functionals. The agreement between theory and experiments is generally quite good. Phonon calculations were also carried out to show that hcp ruthenium is not only structurally but also dynamically stable up to extreme pressures. These calculations also allow the pressure dependence of the Raman-active E2g mode and the silent B1g mode of Ru to be determined.
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Oct 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[18643]
Abstract: Decalcification causes critical degradation of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) – the principal binder in concrete. Contrary to structural change, the decalcification-induced change of C-S-H mechanical properties has not been sufficiently investigated. To fill this gap, here C-S-H was synthesized and decalcified using NH4NO3 solutions. It was then subjected to chemical analysis and high pressure X-ray diffraction study. Our results indicate that C-S-H decalcifies only in the interlayer which reduces its stiffness along the c-axis. The incompressibility and the transverse isotropy remain unchanged for the calcium silicate main layer, despite the vast change of silicate chain linkage. The intralayer Ca does not leach as long as C-S-H maintains the tobermorite-like structure. A ~30% reduction of bulk modulus is estimated for decalcified C-S-H. Our results add fundamental knowledge to the structure-property correlation of C-S-H subjected to decalcification.
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Sep 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[21190]
Open Access
Abstract: In this work, the melting line of platinum has been characterized both experimentally, using synchrotron X-ray diffraction in laser-heated diamond-anvil cells, and theoretically, using ab initio simulations. In the investigated pressure and temperature range (pressure between 10 GPa and 110 GPa and temperature between 300 K and 4800 K), only the face-centered cubic phase of platinum has been observed. The melting points obtained with the two techniques are in good agreement. Furthermore, the obtained results agree and considerably extend the melting line previously obtained in large-volume devices and in one laser-heated diamond-anvil cells experiment, in which the speckle method was used as melting detection technique. The divergence between previous laser-heating experiments is resolved in favor of those experiments reporting the higher melting slope.
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Sep 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Ge
Wang
,
Zhongming
Fan
,
Shunsuke
Murakami
,
Zhilun
Lu
,
David A.
Hall
,
Derek C.
Sinclair
,
Antonio
Feteira
,
Xiaoli
Tan
,
Jacob L.
Jones
,
Annette K.
Kleppe
,
Dawei
Wang
,
Ian M.
Reaney
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19590]
Abstract: High electrostrain and breakdown strength (1 − x)BiFeO3-0.3BaTiO3-xNd(Li0.5Nb0.5)O3 (BF-BT-xNLN) ceramics were studied by in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD) in combination with Rietveld refinement and conventional transmission electron microscopy. At zero field, compositions transformed from majority ferroelectric rhombohedral to pseudocubic as the NLN concentration increased, with 0.27% strain achieved at 60 kV cm−1 for x = 0.01. The large measured macroscopic strain was commensurate with peak shifting in XRD peak profiles, yielding 0.6% total strain at 150 kV cm−1. Strain anisotropy of ε200 > ε220 > ε111 was observed but despite the large applied field, no peak splitting was detected. We therefore concluded that the large electrostrain is not achieved through a conventional relaxor to field induced long-range ferroelectric transition. Instead, the data supports a model where local polar regions distort in the direction of the applied field within multiple local symmetries (pseudosymmetry) without long range correlation. We proposed that pseudosymmetry is maintained in BF-BT-xNLN even at high field (150 kV cm−1) due to the large ion radii mismatch and competing ionic/covalent bonding between Ba2+ and Bi3+ ions.
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Aug 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[9903, 11121]
Open Access
Abstract: Hydroxide perovskite solid solutions along the CuxZn1−xSn(OH)6 join have been investigated at ambient conditions. Two compositions, Cu0.4Zn0.6Sn(OH)6 (cubic) and CuSn(OH)6 (tetragonal), have also been studied at pressures up to 17 GPa. In both ambient and high-pressure experiments, samples were characterised using powder X-ray diffraction. Bulk compositions between 0 ≤ XCu ≤ 0.4 are metrically cubic (space group Pn
3
¯
3¯
), whereas those with XCu = 0.9 and 1 produced single-phase tetragonal Cu0.9Zn0.1Sn(OH)6 and CuSn(OH)6 (space group P42/n). The products of syntheses with 0.5 ≤ XCu ≤ 0.8 contain coexisting cubic and tetragonal phases. The cubic → tetragonal transformation is rationalised in terms of being driven by local strain associated with the accumulation of Cu-rich domains in the cubic phase. The high-pressure studies of cubic Cu0.4Zn0.6Sn(OH)6 and tetragonal CuSn(OH)6 phases showed contrasting behaviour. The compression curve of the cubic phase is smooth without inflexion or discontinuity to 17 GPa. The derived bulk modulus of Cu0.4Zn0.6Sn(OH)6 is K0 = 75.8(4) GPa (K′ = 4). For CuSn(OH)6, compression data cannot be fitted by a single equation-of-state over the entire pressure range to 17 GPa, as there is a clear discontinuity between 7 and 10 GPa that corresponds to an increase in compressibility at higher pressures. Compression data for CuSn(OH)6 to 7 GPa are: K0 = 59.7(9) GPa, Ka0 = 79(2) GPa, and Kc0 = 38.0(3) GPa (K′ = 4 for all). It is shown that the strong Jahn–Teller distortion associated with the Cu(OH)6 octahedron is primarily responsible for the discontinuous and highly anisotropic compressional behaviour of the unit cell of CuSn(OH)6 hydroxide perovskite.
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Jul 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Abstract: Using synchrotron x-ray diffraction, we show that the long-accepted monoclinic structure of the “collapsed” high-pressure phases reported in seven lanthanide elements [Nd, Tb, Gd, Dy, Ho, Er, and (probably) Tm] is incorrect. In Tb, Gd, Dy, Ho, Er, and Tm we show that the collapsed phases have a 16-atom orthorhombic structure (
o
F
16
) not previously seen in the elements, whereas in Nd we show that it has an eight-atom orthorhombic structure (
o
F
8
) previously reported in several actinide elements.
o
F
16
and
o
F
8
are members of a new family of layered elemental structures, the discovery of which reveals that the high-pressure structural systematics of the lanthanides, actinides, and group-III elements (Sc and Y) are much more related than previously imagined. Electronic structure calculations of Tb, combined with quantum many-body corrections, confirm the experimental observation, and calculate that the collapsed orthorhombic phase is a ferromagnet, nearly degenerate with an antiferromagnetic state between 60 and 80 GPa. We find that the magnetic properties of Tb survive to the highest pressures obtained in our experiments (110 GPa). Further calculations of the collapsed phases of Gd and Dy, again using the correct crystal structure, show the former to be a type-A antiferromagnet, whereas the latter is ferromagnetic.
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Jul 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[19187]
Abstract: The zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF‐4 has recently been shown to exhibit large structural flexibility as a response to hydrostatic pressures, going from an open pore phase (ZIF‐4(Zn)‐op) to a closed pore phase (ZIF‐4(Zn)‐cp). The use of diamond anvil cell (DAC) setups has so far restricted thorough experimental insight into the evolution of lattice parameters at pressures below p < 0.1 GPa. Here we revisit the high‐pressure properties of ZIF‐4(Zn) by applying a new high‐pressure powder X‐ray diffraction setup that allows for tracking the evolution of lattice parameters in pressure increments as small as Δp = 0.005 GPa in the pressure range p = ambient – 0.4 GPa; a pressure resolution that cannot be achieved by using traditional DACs. We find ZIF‐4(Zn) has a bulk modulus of K(ZIF‐4(Zn)‐op) = 2.01 ± 0.05 GPa and K(ZIF‐4(Zn)‐cp) = 4.39 ± 0.20 GPa, clarifying and confirming some ambiguous results that have been reported previously.
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Jul 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[11823, 11658]
Abstract: The effect of pressure on the room temperature solubility of hydrogen in Zircaloy-4 was examined using synchrotron X-ray diffraction on small ground flake samples in a diamond anvil cell at pressures up to 20.9 GPa. Different combinations of hydrogen level/state in the sample and of pressure transmitting medium were examined; in all three experiments, it could be concluded that pressure resulted in the dissolution of δ hydrides and that interstitial hydrogen seemingly retards the formation of ω Zr. A pressure of around 9 GPa was required to halve the hydride fraction. These results imply that the effect of pressure is thermodynamically analogous to that of increasing temperature, but that the effect is small. The results are consistent with the volume per Zr atom of the α, δ and ω phases, with the bulk moduli of α and δ, and with previous measurements of the hydrogen site molar volumes in the α and δ phases. The results are interpreted in terms of their implication for our understanding of the driving forces for hydride precipitation at crack tips, which are in a region of hydrostatic tensile stress on the order of 1.5 GPa.
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Jul 2019
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I15-Extreme Conditions
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[16390]
Abstract: Electromechanical actuation in piezoceramics is usually enhanced by creating chemically homogeneous materials with structurally heterogeneous morphotropic phase boundaries, leading to abrupt changes in ion displacement directions within the perovskite unit cell. In the present study, an alternative mechanism to enhance electromechanical coupling is found in both chemically and structurally heterogeneous BiFeO3−BaTiO3 lead-free piezoceramics. Such a mechanism is observed in a composition exhibiting core-shell type microstructure, associated with donor-type substitution of Ti4+ for Fe3+, and is primarily activated by thermal quenching treatment. Here, we describe the use of in-situ high-energy synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction upon the application of a high electric field to directly monitor the ferroelectric and elastic interactions between these composite-like components, formed as core and shell regions within grains. Translational short or long-range ordering is observed in the BiFeO3‒depleted shell regions which undergo significant structural alterations from pseudocubic Pm-3m relaxor-ferroelectric in slow-cooled ceramics to rhombohedral R3c or R3m with long-range ferroelectric order in the quenched state. The strain contributions from each component are calculated, leading to the conclusion that the total macroscopic strain arises predominantly from the transformed shell after quenching. Such observations are also complemented by investigations of microstructure and electrical properties, including ferroelectric behaviour and temperature-dependent dielectric properties.
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Jul 2019
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