University of Bayreuth, Press Release Nr. 72/2022 - 11 May 2022
Traveling to the centre of planet Uranus: Materials synthesis research and study in terapascal range for the first time
Jules Verne could not even dream of this: A research team from the University of Bayreuth, together with international partners, has pushed the boundaries of high-pressure and high-temperature research into cosmic dimensions. For the first time, they have succeeded in generating and simultaneously analyzing materials under compression pressures of more than one terapascal (1,000 gigapascals). Such extremely high pressures prevail, 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 Nature, the researchers present the method they have developed for the synthesis and structural analysis of novel materials.
Structures and properties of materials at extremely high pressures and temperatures are still largely "terra incognita". Prof. Leonid Dubrovinsky and his research partners use a laser-heated two-stage diamond anvil cell they constructed for the synthesis of materials in the terapascal range (1000 gigapascals). In situ single crystal X-ray diffraction is used for the simultaneous structural characterization of the materials.
Timofey Fedotenko.