Abstract
Raman spectroscopy and synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements of ammonia (NH3) in laser-heated diamond anvil cells, at pressures up to 60 GPa and temperatures up to 2500 K, reveal that the melting line exhibits a maximum near 37 GPa and intermolecular proton fluctuations substantially increase in the fluid with pressure. We find that NH3 is chemically unstable at high pressures, partially dissociating into N2 and H2. Ab initio calculations performed in this work show that this process is thermodynamically driven. The chemical reactivity dramatically increases at high temperature (in the fluid phase at T > 1700 K) almost independent of pressure. Quenched from these high temperature conditions, NH3 exhibits structural differences from known solid phases. We argue that chemical reactivity of NH3 competes with the theoretically predicted dynamic dissociation and ionization.
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Dates
Type | When |
---|---|
Created | 13 years ago (Aug. 14, 2012, 6:51 p.m.) |
Deposited | 2 years, 2 months ago (June 19, 2023, 11:52 p.m.) |
Indexed | 1 month ago (July 30, 2025, 6:58 a.m.) |
Issued | 13 years ago (Aug. 14, 2012) |
Published | 13 years ago (Aug. 14, 2012) |
Published Online | 13 years ago (Aug. 14, 2012) |
Published Print | 13 years ago (Aug. 14, 2012) |
Funders
1
U.S. Department of Energy
10.13039/100000015
Region: Americas
gov (National government)
Labels
8
- Energy Department
- Department of Energy
- United States Department of Energy
- ENERGY.GOV
- US Department of Energy
- USDOE
- DOE
- USADOE
Awards
2
- W-31-109-Eng-38
- DE-AC02-06CH11357
@article{Ojwang_2012, title={Melting and dissociation of ammonia at high pressure and high temperature}, volume={137}, ISSN={1089-7690}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4742340}, DOI={10.1063/1.4742340}, number={6}, journal={The Journal of Chemical Physics}, publisher={AIP Publishing}, author={Ojwang, J. G. O. and Stewart McWilliams, R. and Ke, Xuezhi and Goncharov, Alexander F.}, year={2012}, month=aug }