6533b7ddfe1ef96bd1273ffa
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Nucleation mechanism for the direct graphite-to-diamond phase transition
Michele ParrinelloJörg BehlerRustam Z. KhaliullinHagai EshetThomas D. Kühnesubject
Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)Condensed Matter - Materials SciencePhase transitionMaterials scienceConcerted reactionMechanical EngineeringNucleationAb initioDiamondMaterials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)FOS: Physical sciencesGeneral Chemistryengineering.materialComputational Physics (physics.comp-ph)Condensed Matter PhysicsAmorphous carbonMechanics of MaterialsChemical physicsPhysics - Chemical PhysicsMetastabilityengineeringGeneral Materials ScienceGraphitePhysics - Computational Physicsdescription
Graphite and diamond have comparable free energies, yet forming diamond from graphite is far from easy. In the absence of a catalyst, pressures that are significantly higher than the equilibrium coexistence pressures are required to induce the graphite-to-diamond transition. Furthermore, the formation of the metastable hexagonal polymorph of diamond instead of the more stable cubic diamond is favored at lower temperatures. The concerted mechanism suggested in previous theoretical studies cannot explain these phenomena. Using an ab initio quality neural-network potential we performed a large-scale study of the graphite-to-diamond transition assuming that it occurs via nucleation. The nucleation mechanism accounts for the observed phenomenology and reveals its microscopic origins. We demonstrated that the large lattice distortions that accompany the formation of the diamond nuclei inhibit the phase transition at low pressure and direct it towards the hexagonal diamond phase at higher pressure. The nucleation mechanism proposed in this work is an important step towards a better understanding of structural transformations in a wide range of complex systems such as amorphous carbon and carbon nanomaterials.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-01-07 |