The ability to control materials stability, bonding, and transformation by thermo-mechanical and chemical means is significant for development of high-energy-density extended solids. We report that doping hydrogen (∼10%) in carbon monoxide (CO) can greatly lower the polymerization pressure of CO and enhance the stability of recovered polymeric CO products at ambient conditions. Hydrogen-doped CO crystallizes into well-grown dendrites of β-CO-like phase at 3.2 GPa, which polymerizes to highly unsaturated black polymer (phase I) at ∼4.7 (5.8) GPa. Upon further compression, this highly colored polymer transforms into a translucent 3D network structure (phase II) at 6–7 (10–17) GPa and then a transparent 2D layer structure (phase III) at 20–30 (30–60) GPa. A similar series of transformations are also found in pure CO but at considerably higher transition pressures, as noted in parentheses. All polymeric phases are recoverable at ambient conditions, exhibiting an array of phase stability and novel properties such as chemically unstable phase I, highly luminescent phase II, and highly transparent layered phase III. The density of recovered products ranges from ∼2.3 g/cm3 to 3.6 g/cm3, depending on the pressure recovered. The recovered products are highly disordered but slowly decompose to crystalline solids of anhydrous polymeric oxalic acid while exhibiting interesting crystal morphologies such as nm-cobs, nm-lamellar layers, and μm-bales. The present first-principles MD simulations suggest that the polymerization occurs at 6 (or 10) GPa in H2-doped (or pure) CO. While not directly participating in the reaction, the role of H2 molecules is to enhance the mobility of CO molecules leading to the polymerization.

The phase diagram of D2S has been investigated to 70 GPa in diamond anvil cells using confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy. The results show that molecular phase IV transforms to “polymeric” phase V at 30 GPa at 300 K, analogous to an extended network structure of ice X with symmetrized hydrogen bonds. The formation of symmetrized phase V is evident by its characteristic single vibrational Raman peak at ∼460 cm–1 for symmetric D–S–D bending/stretching, analogous to that of ice X at ∼730 cm–1 at 76 GPa. At low temperatures, the proton-disordered phase IV transforms to more proton-ordered phases of IV′ and VI, which also transforms to phase V at 40 GPa at 100 K. The present phase diagram indicates that D2S is chemically stable at least to 70 GPa at 300 K, contrary to the previously reported decomposition to sulfur and HxS (x > 2) above 30 GPa. This conclusion is important, considering that a wide range of decomposed states (H3S + S, H3S+ + HS–, etc.) were used to explain the recently observed high Tc superconductivity in dense H2S.

Structural polymorphism in dense carbon dioxide (CO2) has attracted significant attention in high-pressure physics and chemistry for the past two decades. Here, we have performed high-pressure experiments and first-principles theoretical calculations to investigate the stability, structure, and dynamical properties of dense CO2. We found evidence that CO2-V with the 4-coordinated extended structure can be quenched to ambient pressure below 200 K—the melting temperature of CO2-I. CO2-V is a fully coordinated structure formed from a molecular solid at high pressure and recovered at ambient pressure. Apart from confirming the metastability of CO2-V (I-42d) at ambient pressure at low temperature, results of ab initio molecular dynamics and metadynamics (MD) simulations provided insights into the transformation processes and structural relationship from the molecular to the extended phases. In addition, the simulation also predicted a phase V′(Pna21) in the stability region of CO2-V with a diffraction pattern similar to that previously assigned to the CO2-V (P212121) structure. Both CO2-V and -V′ are predicted to be recoverable and hard with a Vicker hardness of ∼20 GPa. Significantly, MD simulations found that the CO2 in phase IV exhibits large-amplitude bending motions at finite temperatures and high pressures. This finding helps to explain the discrepancy between earlier predicted static structures and experiments. MD simulations clearly indicate temperature effects are critical to understanding the high-pressure behaviors of dense CO2 structures—highlighting the significance of chemical kinetics associated with the transformations.

Pressure-induced structural and electronic transformations of tungsten disulfide (WS2) have been studied to 60 GPa, in both hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic conditions, using four-probe electrical resistance measurements, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The results show the evidence for an isostructural phase transition from hexagonal 2Hc phase to hexagonal 2Ha phase, which accompanies the metallization at ∼37 GPa. This isostructural transition occurs displacively over a large pressure range between 15 and 45 GPa and is driven by the presence of strong shear stress developed in the layer structure of WS2 under nonhydrostatic compression. Interestingly, this transition is absent in hydrostatic conditions using He pressure medium, underscoring its strong dependence on the state of stress. We attribute the absence to the incorporation of He atoms between the layers, mitigating the development of shear stress. We also conjecture a possibility of magnetic ordering in WS2 that may occur at low temperature near the metallization.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is the first molecular system found to transform into a nonmolecular “polymeric” solid above 5.5 GPa, yet been studied beyond 10 GPa. Here, we show a series of pressure-induced phase transformations in CO to 160 GPa: from a molecular solid to a highly colored, low-density polymeric phase I to translucent, high-density phase II to transparent, layered phase III. The properties of these phases are consistent with those expected from recently predicted 1D P21/m, 3D I212121, and 2D Cmcm structures, respectively. Thus, the present results advocate a stepwise polymerization of CO triple bonds to ultimately a 2D singly bonded layer structure with an enhanced ionic character.

Carbon dioxide exhibits a richness of high-pressure polymorphs with a great diversity in intermolecular interaction, chemical bonding, and crystal structures. It ranges from typical molecular solids to fully extended covalent solids with crystal structures similar to those of SiO2. These extended solids of carbon dioxide are fundamentally new materials exhibiting interesting optical nonlinearity, low compressibility and high energy density. Furthermore, the large disparity in chemical bonding between the extended network and molecular structures results in a broad metastability domain for these phases to room temperature and almost to ambient pressure and thereby offers enhanced opportunities for novel materials developments. Broadly speaking, these molecular-to-non-molecular transitions occur due to electron delocalization manifested as a rapid increase in electron kinetic energy at high density. The detailed mechanisms, however, are more complex with phase metastabilities, path-dependent phases and phase boundaries, and large lattice strains and structural distortions – all of which are controlled by well beyond thermodynamic constraints to chemical kinetics associated with the governing phases and transitions. As a result, the equilibrium phase boundary is difficult to locate precisely (experimentally or theoretically) and is often obscured by the presence of metastable phases (ordered or disordered). This paper will review the pressure-induced transformations observed in highly compressed carbon dioxide and present chemistry perspectives on those molecular-to-non-molecular transformations that can be applied to other low-Z molecular solids at Mbar pressures where the compression energy rivals the chemical bond energies.

High pressure plays an increasingly important role in both understanding superconductivity and the development of new superconducting materials. New superconductors were found in metallic and metal oxide systems at high pressure. However, because of the filled close-shell configuration, the superconductivity in molecular systems has been limited to charge-transferred salts and metal-doped carbon species with relatively low superconducting transition temperatures. Here, we report the low-temperature superconducting phase observed in diamagnetic carbon disulfide under high pressure. The superconductivity arises from a highly disordered extended state (CS4 phase or phase III[CS4]) at ∼6.2 K over a broad pressure range from 50 to 172 GPa. Based on the X-ray scattering data, we suggest that the local structural change from a tetrahedral to an octahedral configuration is responsible for the observed superconductivity.

Under high pressure, simple molecular solids transform into nonmolecular (extended) solids as compression energies approach the energies of strong covalent bonds in constituent chemical species. Unlike molecular and extended phase transitions, these exhibit path dependent phases, phase boundaries, phase metastabilities, and structural distortions that lead to large uncertainties in both experimental and theoretical phase diagrams. Here we present experimental and theoretical evidence that carbon dioxide polymerizes to extended phase V at 20 GPa, indicating a substantially lower equilibrium phase boundary than previously suggested. Clearly, these results indicate extended structures are inherently more stable above 20 GPa and the presence of a strong activation barrier hindering the polymerization in the intermediate pressure region between 20 and 40 GPa. Further, the present results advocate a chemistry view of molecular to nonmolecular phase transitions governed by constraints to kinetics and local energy minima that go beyond thermodynamics and are analogous to the graphite–diamond transition.

The energetic material ammonium nitrate (AN, NH4NO3) has been studied under both hydrostatic and nonhydrostatic conditions using diamond anvil cells combined with micro-Raman spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. The refined powder X-ray data indicates that under hydrostatic conditions AN-IV (orthorhombic, Pmmn) is stable to above 40 GPa. In one nonhydrostatic compression experiment a volume collapse was observed, suggesting an isostructural phase transition to a “metastable” phase IV′ between 17 and 28 GPa. The structures of phase IV and IV′ are similar with the subtle difference in the hydrogen-bonding network; that is, a noticeably shorter N1···O1 distance seen in phase IV′. This hydrogen bond has a significant component along the b-axis, which proves to be the most compressible until cell axis over the entire pressure range. It is likely that the shear stress of the nonhydrostatic experiment drives the phase IV-to-IV′ transition to occur. We compare the present isotherms of phase IV and IV′ in both static and nonhydrostatic conditions with the previously obtained Hugoniot and find that the nonhydrostatic isotherm approximately matches the Hugoniot. On the basis of this comparison, we conjecture that a chemical reaction or phase transition may occur in AN under dynamic pressure conditions at 22 GPa.

The phase diagram of water is both unusual and complex, exhibiting a wide range of polymorphs including proton-ordered or disordered forms. In addition, a variety of stable and metastable forms are observed. The richness of H2O phases attests the versatility of hydrogen-bonded network structures that include kinetically stable amorphous ices. Information of the amorphous solids, however, is rarely available especially for the stability field and transformation dynamics—but all reported to exist below the crystallization temperature of approximately 150–170 K below 4–5 GPa. Here, we present the evidence of high density amorphous (HDA) ice formed well above the crystallization temperature at 1 GPa—well inside the so-called “no-man’s land.” It is formed from metastable ice VII in the stability field of ice VI under rapid compression using dynamic-diamond anvil cell (d-DAC) and results from structural similarities between HDA and ice VII. The formation follows an interfacial growth mechanism unlike the melting process. Nevertheless, the occurrence of HDA along the extrapolated melt line of ice VII resembles the ice Ih-to-HDA transition, indicating that structural instabilities of parent ice VII and Ih drive the pressure-induced amorphization.

Carbon dioxide exhibits a richness of high-pressure polymorphs with a great diversity in intermolecular interaction, chemical bonding, and crystal structures. It ranges from typical molecular solids to fully extended covalent solids with crystal structures similar to those of SiO2. These extended solids of carbon dioxide are fundamentally new materials exhibiting interesting optical nonlinearity, low compressibility and high energy density. Furthermore, the large disparity in chemical bonding between the extended network and molecular structures results in a broad metastability domain for these phases to room temperature and almost to ambient pressure and thereby offers enhanced opportunities for novel materials developments. Broadly speaking, these molecular-to-non-molecular transitions occur due to electron delocalization manifested as a rapid increase in electron kinetic energy at high density. The detailed mechanisms, however, are more complex with phase metastabilities, path-dependent phases and phase boundaries, and large lattice strains and structural distortions – all of which are controlled by well beyond thermodynamic constraints to chemical kinetics associated with the governing phases and transitions. As a result, the equilibrium phase boundary is difficult to locate precisely (experimentally or theoretically) and is often obscured by the presence of metastable phases (ordered or disordered). This paper will review the pressure-induced transformations observed in highly compressed carbon dioxide and present chemistry perspectives on those molecular-to-non-molecular transformations that can be applied to other low-Z molecular solids at Mbar pressures where the compression energy rivals the chemical bond energies.