High Pressure Synergetic Consortium, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Argonne, IL 60439, USA.
Science. 2012 Aug 17;337(6096):825-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1220522.
Solid-state materials can be categorized by their structures into crystalline (having periodic translation symmetry), amorphous (no periodic and orientational symmetry), and quasi-crystalline (having orientational but not periodic translation symmetry) phases. Hybridization of crystalline and amorphous structures at the atomic level has not been experimentally observed. We report the discovery of a long-range ordered material constructed from units of amorphous carbon clusters that was synthesized by compressing solvated fullerenes. Using x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and quantum molecular dynamics simulation, we observed that, although carbon-60 cages were crushed and became amorphous, the solvent molecules remained intact, playing a crucial role in maintaining the long-range periodicity. Once formed, the high-pressure phase is quenchable back to ambient conditions and is ultra-incompressible, with the ability to indent diamond.
固态材料可以根据其结构分为晶体（具有周期性平移对称性）、非晶（没有周期性和取向对称性）和准晶体（具有取向对称性但没有周期性平移对称性）相。在原子水平上，晶体和非晶体结构的杂化尚未在实验中观察到。我们报告了一种由无定形碳团簇单元构成的长程有序材料的发现，该材料是通过压缩溶剂化富勒烯合成的。使用 X 射线衍射、拉曼光谱和量子分子动力学模拟，我们观察到，尽管 C60 笼被压碎并变得无定形，但溶剂分子保持完整，在维持长程周期性方面起着至关重要的作用。一旦形成，高压相可以淬火回到环境条件，并具有超高的不可压缩性，能够压入钻石。
