Search

Plastic strain-induced phase transformations (PTs) and chemical reactions under high pressure are broadly spread in modern technologies, friction and wear, geophysics, and astrogeology. However, because of very heterogeneous fields of plastic strain E p and stress σ tensors and volume fraction c of phases in a sample compressed in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) and impossibility of measurements of σ and E p , there are no strict kinetic equations for them. Here, we develop a kinetic model, finite element method (FEM) approach, and combined FEM-experimental approaches to determine all fields in strongly plastically predeformed Zr compressed in DAC, and specific kinetic equation for α-ω PT consistent with experimental data for the entire sample. Since all fields in the sample are very heterogeneous, data are obtained for numerous complex 7D paths in the space of 3 components of the plastic strain tensor and 4 components of the stress tensor. Kinetic equation depends on accumulated plastic strain (instead of time) and pressure and is independent of plastic strain and deviatoric stress tensors, i.e., it can be applied for various above processes. Our results initiate kinetic studies of strain-induced PTs and provide efforts toward more comprehensive understanding of material behavior in extreme conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanisms of hexagonal close-packed (HCP) to body-centered cubic (BCC) phase transformation in Mg single crystals are observed using a combination of polychromatic beam Laue diffraction and monochromatic beam powder diffraction techniques under quasi-hydrostatic pressures of up to 58 ± 2 GPa at ambient temperature. Although experiments were performed with both He and Ne pressure media, crystals inevitably undergo plastic deformation upon loading to 40–44 GPa. The plasticity is accommodated by dislocation glide causing local misorientations of up to 1°–2°. The selected crystals are tracked by mapping Laue diffraction spots up to the onset of the HCP to BCC transformation, which is determined to be at a pressure of 56.6 ± 2 GPa. Intensity of the Laue reflections from HCP crystals rapidly decrease but no reflections from crystalline BCC phase are observed with a further increase of pressure. Nevertheless, the powder diffraction shows the formation of 110 BCC peak at 56.6 GPa. The peak intensity increases at 59.7 GPa. Upon the full transformation, a powder-like BCC aggregate is formed revealing the destructive nature of the HCP to BCC transformation in single crystals of Mg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crystallographic theory based on energy minimization suggests austenite-twinned martensite interfaces with specific orientation, which are confirmed experimentally for various materials. Pressure-induced phase transformation (PT) from semiconducting Si-I to metallic Si-II, due to very large and anisotropic transformation strain, may challenge this theory. Here, unexpected nanostructure evolution during Si-I → Si-II PT is revealed by combining molecular dynamics (MD), crystallographic theory, generalized for strained crystals, and in situ real-time Laue X-ray diffraction (XRD). Twinned Si-II, consisting of two martensitic variants, and unexpected nanobands, consisting of alternating strongly deformed and rotated residual Si-I and third variant of Si-II, form { 111 } interface with Si-I and produce almost self-accommodated nanostructure despite the large transformation volumetric strain of − 0.237 . The interfacial bands arrest the { 111 } interfaces, leading to repeating nucleation-growth-arrest process and to growth by propagating { 110 } interface, which (as well as { 111 } interface) do not appear in traditional crystallographic theory. Crystallographic theory suggests austenite-twinned martensite interfaces at specific orientations, but this is not the case for Si-I → Si-II phase transformation. Here the authors show the classically forbidden microstructure by combined experiments, simulations and crystallographic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerium-12at%Praseodymium(Ce0.88Pr0.12) and Ce-50at%Praseodymium(Ce0.50Pr0.50) alloy samples that contain a random solid-solution of Ce (4f1 (J = 5/2)) and Pr (4f2 (J = 4)) localized f-states have been studied by angle dispersive x-ray diffraction in a diamond anvil cell to a pressure of 65 GPa and 150 GPa respectively using a synchrotron source. Ce0.88Pr0.12 alloy crystallizes in a face-centered cubic (γ-phase) structure at ambient conditions, while Ce0.50Pr0.50 alloy crystallizes in the double hexagonal close packed (dhcp) structure at ambient conditions. Two distinct volume collapse transitions are observed in Ce0.88Pr0.12 alloy at 1.5 GPa and 18 GPa with volume change of 8.5% and 3% respectively. In contrast, Ce0.50Pr0.50 alloy shows only a single volume collapse of 5.6% at 20 GPa on phase transformation to α-Uranium structure under high pressure. Electrical transport measurements under high pressure show anomalies in electrical resistance at phase transitions for both compositions of this alloy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using designer diamond anvils and angle dispersive X-ray diffraction technique at a synchrotron source, we have performed simultaneous electrical and structural studies on neodymium metal to 152 GPa in a diamond anvil cell. Four-probe electrical resistance measurement shows a 38% decrease in the electrical resistivity, associated with the delocalization of the 4f-shell electrons, starting at 100 GPa up to a final pressure of 152 GPa. The continuous decrease in electrical resistivity is consistent with the observation of a gradual phase transition to a-U structure in this pressure range. The (1 1 1) diffraction peak of a-U structure first appears at 100 GPa and increases in intensity with increasing pressure to 152 GPa. This increase in intensity is attributed to an increasing volume fraction of a-U phase and an increase in structural y -parameter from 0.07 at 118 GPa to 0.095 at 152 GPa. In contrast to the abrupt pressure-induced f-electron transition seen in cerium and praseodymium, the continuous evolution of a-U structure and electrical resistivity in neodymium confirms the gradual nature of 4f delocalization process in this element. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phase stability and isothermal compression behavior of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) have been established to 26.5 GPa using angle-dispersive x-ray diffraction. P-V isotherms derived from the high-pressure x-ray spectra displayed a slight density hysteresis around 4.0 GPa and a sharp discontinuity at ∼20.0 GPa. The latter transition is ascribed to a monoclinic-to-orthorhombic first-order phase transition in TNT. The conversion of the isothermal P-V data to the shock velocity-particle velocity plane revealed a deviation from linearity at low up, a cusp associated with the phase transition at high up, and general agreement with the wealth of unreacted Hugoniot data on TNT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Structural stability of Ti alloy, stabilized as a mixture of bcc (β) and hcp (α) phases, was investigated up to 71 GPa. Over this pressure, β phase remains stable, while for α phase, a decrease in c/a ratio from 1.601 at ambient pressure to 1.568 at 36 GPa is observed, followed by an increase to 1.613 at 44 GPa. A steady value is then observed up to 67 GPa. Above 58 GPa, the authors also observe that α phase peak intensity is decreasing. At 67 GPa, the authors only observe β phase peaks, which indicates that α→β structural phase transition is complete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structural phase stability of 1,1-diamino-2,2-dinitroethylene (FOX-7) has been studied up to 10 GPa through isothermal compression at 100 °C and 200 °C using synchrotron mid- and far-infrared spectroscopy. During isothermal compression at 100 °C changes are observed in vibrational spectra with increase in pressure that are indicative of significant distortion to monoclinic α phase or a possible structural transformation to a high pressure α′ phase at 2.2 GPa and α″ phase at 6.1 GPa. At 200 °C, for the far- and mid-IR regimes, the similar changes were observed at 2.1 (2.0) GPa and 5.3 (5.5) GPa, respectively. The observed change is nearly isobaric, consistent with previously reported high pressure and room temperature values, up to the highest temperature of 200 °C reached in our experiments. Over the total P-T range investigated, up to ∼10 GPa and 200 °C, we observed no evidence of sample decomposition. The observed changes are partially reversible with only slight evidence of the high pressure distortion remaining upon complete decompression. Additional isobaric heating at 1.07 GPa was performed in the mid-IR regime, which clearly revealed an onset of decomposition at 360 °C. Further x-ray or neutron diffraction, which are needed to fully resolve the cause of observed changes above 2 and 5 GPa, are ongoing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchrotron X-ray radiation Laue diffraction is a widely used diagnostic technique for characterizing the microstructure of materials. An exciting feature of this technique is that comparable numbers of reflections can be measured several orders of magnitude faster than using monochromatic methods. This makes polychromatic beam diffraction a powerful tool for time-resolved microstructural studies, critical for understanding pressure-induced phase transition mechanisms, by in situ and in operando measurements. The current status of this technique, including experimental routines and data analysis, is presented along with some case studies. The new experimental setup at the High-Pressure Collaborative Access Team (HPCAT) facility at the Advanced Photon Source, specifically dedicated for in situ and in operando microstructural studies by Laue diffraction under high pressure, is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a synchrotron Laue diffraction study on the microstructure evolution in zirconium (Zr) as it undergoes a pressure-driven structural phase transformation, using a recently developed real time scanning x-ray microscopy technique. Time resolved characterizations of microstructure under high pressure show that Zr exhibits a grain enlargement across the α-Zr to ω-Zr structural phase transition at room-temperature, with nucleation and growth of ω-Zr crystals observed from initially a nano-crystalline aggregate of α-Zr. The observed grain enlargement is unusual since the enlargement processes typically require substantially high temperature to overcome the activation barriers for forming and moving of grain boundaries. Possible mechanisms for the grain enlargement are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additively manufactured Fe-Cu alloys contain both equilibrium face-centered cubic (FCC) and metastable body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal structure Cu precipitates depending on their size. However, the stability of these nanoscale precipitates under extreme conditions such as high pressures has not been reported. This study investigates the phase transformations and microstructural stability of laser directed energy deposition (DED-LB) made Fe67Cu33 alloy (nominal composition in at.%) under high static pressure deformation using in-situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction under pressure, postmortem high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (HR-STEM), and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In-situ XRD results reveal a reversible phase transformation from BCC to the hexagonal close-packed (HCP) structure in the Fe grains at an onset pressure of 16.4 GPa, significantly higher than reported in the literature for pure Fe. Although no high-pressure phase transition was observed in the FCC Cu grains through XRD, HR-STEM analysis uncovers a phase transition to the HCP structure in nanoscale metastable BCC Cu precipitates within the BCC Fe matrix. After decompression, the Fe matrix reverted back to the BCC structure with periodic lath martensite, while regions of the nanoscale BCC Cu precipitates retained the metastable HCP structure. MD simulations support the BCC → HCP transition in the embedded nanoscale coherent Cu precipitates, consistent with the classical Burgers mechanism. Thus, by leveraging in-situ XRD observation, postmortem high-resolution S/TEM microscopy, and MD simulations, this study offers profound insights into the distinctive phase transformations induced by high pressure in DED-LB Fe67Cu33 alloy, which is distinguished by its hierarchical microstructure. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]