April 29, 2024

Like at the Center of Planet Uranus: How Materials Behave Under Extreme Pressure

Structures and homes of products at extremely high pressures and temperature levels are still largely “terra incognita”. They prospered in generating and simultaneously analyzing products under compression pressures of more than one terapascal (1,000 gigapascals) for the very first time. On the one hand, complex technical requirements are essential to expose material samples to such severe pressures, and on the other hand, advanced approaches for simultaneous structural analyses were lacking. The experiments published in Nature, for that reason, open up completely new measurements for high-pressure crystallography: products can now be produced and studied in the lab that exist– if at all– just under very high pressures in the vastness of the Universe.

Structures and properties of products at extremely high pressures and temperature levels are still mainly “terra incognita”. Prof. Leonid Dubrovinsky and his research partners use a laser-heated two-stage diamond anvil cell they built for the synthesis of materials in the terapascal variety (1000 gigapascals).
New technique enables materials synthesis research and study in the terapascal variety for the very first time.

” The approach we have actually established enables us for the very first time to synthesize new product structures in the terapascal range and to examine them in situ– that is: while the experiment is still running. In this method, we discover about previously unidentified states, properties, and structures of crystals and can significantly deepen our understanding of matter in basic. Belongings insights can be acquired for the exploration of terrestrial planets and the synthesis of functional products utilized in ingenious innovations,” Professor Dr. Leonid Dubrovinsky of the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics (BGI) at the University of Bayreuth, the lead author of the publication.
In their research study, the researchers reveal how they have generated and imagined in situ unique rhenium compounds using the now-developed technique. These materials were manufactured under extreme pressures in a two-stage diamond anvil cell warmed by laser beams.
” Rhenium-nitrogen system has plenty of chemical surprises. It attracted our attention a number of years ago, when we produced an uncommon porous substance ReN10 at a pressure of one million atmospheres in addition to a superhard metal conductor ReN2 that might withstand even incredibly high compression. Synthesis at one terapascal lastly permitted us to get the full picture of chemical changes, which can take place in the Re-N system at extreme conditions,” stated Dr. Maxim Bykov from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Cologne.
” If we apply high-pressure crystallography in the terapascal variety in the future, we may make additional surprising discoveries in this instructions. The doors are now large open for innovative products research that creates and pictures unanticipated structures under extreme pressures,” said the studys other lead author, Professor Dr. Natalia Dubrovinskaia from the Laboratory of Crystallography at the University of Bayreuth.
Reference: “Materials synthesis at terapascal static pressures” by Leonid Dubrovinsky, Saiana Khandarkhaeva, Timofey Fedotenko, Dominique Laniel, Maxim Bykov, Carlotta Giacobbe, Eleanor Lawrence Bright, Pavel Sedmak, Stella Chariton, Vitali Prakapenka, Alena V. Ponomareva, Ekaterina A. Smirnova, Maxim P. Belov, Ferenc Tasnádi, Nina Shulumba, Florian Trybel, Igor A. Abrikosov and Natalia Dubrovinskaia, 11 May 2022, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-022-04550-2.
Together with the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics( BGI) and the Laboratory of Crystallography at the University of Bayreuth, numerous other research partners were included in the research work published in Nature: the University of Cologne, the University of Linköping, the German Electron Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble and the Center for Advanced Radiation Sources at the University of Chicago.

These products were synthesized under severe pressures in a two-stage diamond anvil cell heated by laser beams.

Jules Verne could not have actually dreamed of this: A research team from the University of Bayreuth, together with international partners including scientists from the University of Colognes Department of Chemistry, has pressed the borders of high-temperature and high-pressure research into cosmic measurements. They was successful in producing and simultaneously evaluating materials under compression pressures of more than one terapascal (1,000 gigapascals) for the first time. Such extremely high pressures dominate, for example, at the center of the planet Uranus; they are more than three times higher than the pressure at the center of the Earth. In the journal Nature, the researchers present the approach they have actually established for the synthesis and structural analysis of unique materials.
On the one hand, complex technical requirements are essential to expose material samples to such extreme pressures, and on the other hand, advanced approaches for simultaneous structural analyses were doing not have. The experiments released in Nature, therefore, open up entirely brand-new measurements for high-pressure crystallography: products can now be produced and studied in the laboratory that exist– if at all– just under incredibly high pressures in the vastness of the Universe.