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Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 135702 (2006) [4 pages]

Size-Dependent Pressure-Induced Amorphization in Nanoscale TiO2

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Varghese Swamy1,*, Alexei Kuznetsov2, Leonid S. Dubrovinsky2, Paul F. McMillan3,†, Vitali B. Prakapenka4, Guoyin Shen4, and Barry C. Muddle1
1Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, P.O. Box 69M, Victoria 3800, Australia
2Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth D-95440, Germany
3Department of Chemistry and Materials Chemistry Centre, University College London, 20 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AJ, United Kingdom
4Consortium for Advanced Radiation Sources, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

Received 16 January 2006; published 5 April 2006

We investigated the size-dependent high-pressure phase transition behavior of nanocrystalline anatase TiO2 with synchrotron x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy to 45 GPa at ambient temperature. Pressure-induced amorphization results in a high-density amorphous (HDA) form when the starting crystallite size is <10  nm. The HDA-TiO2 transforms to a low-density amorphous form at lower pressures. Harnessing the nanometer length scale thus provides a new window for experimental investigation of amorphization in poor glass formers and a synthesis route for new amorphous materials.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.135702
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.135702
PACS:
64.70.Nd, 61.43.Er, 61.82.Rx, 62.50.+p

*Corresponding author.

Electronic address: Varghese.Swamy@eng.monash.edu.au

†Also at Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory, Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London W1X 4BS, UK.

 
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