5. Extension of materials synthesis to extreme conditions

The possibility to simultaneously apply high pressures and high temperatures has created new perspectives for materials science. Synthesis under extreme conditions opens for a wealth of novel (often high-density) materials with unforeseen structures and properties. High-pressure synthesis is performed in multi-anvil modules driven by a hydraulic press. The pressure range obtainable in multi-anvil modules is typically 20-30 GPa. High-pressure synthesis is conceptually different from high-pressure studies in diamond anvil cells where pressures up to several hundred GPa are generated within tiny samples held between opposed diamond anvils. The small sample size prohibits the subsequent study of recoverable new high-pressure phases, which, however, is important for their complete structural characterisation as well as detailed property measurements. The aim of high-pressure synthesis is the large volume preparation of such metastable materials. Importantly, without this possibility, high-pressure phases would be excluded as technological materials.

http://chemistry.asu.edu/MultiAnvilLab/index.asp