Size-Dependent Thermal Stability and Optical Properties of Ultra-Small Nanodiamonds Synthesized under High Pressure.

Diamond properties down to the quantum-size region are still poorly understood. High-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) synthesis from chloroadamantane molecules allows precise control of nanodiamond size. Thermal stability and optical properties of nanodiamonds with sizes spanning range from <1 to 8 nm are investigated.

Extended Defects in Graphene and Their Contribution to the Excess Specific Heat at High Temperatures.

The recent experiments on fast (microsecond) pulse heating of graphite suggest the existence of sharp maximum (6500 K at 1-2 GPa) on its melting curve. To check the validity of these findings, we propose to investigate the accumulation of extended in-plane defects in graphene. Such defects would contribute to thermodynamic properties of graphene and impose the upper limit on its melting temperature.

Secondary Relaxation in Supercooled Liquid Propylene Glycol under Ultrahigh Pressures Revealed by Dielectric Spectroscopy Measurements.

1,2-Propanediol (propylene glycol) is a well-known glassformer, which easily vitrifies under wide range of cooling rates. An interesting feature of propylene glycol is that, similar to glycerol, it retains one-mode primary relaxation (slow α process) under a wide range of external P- T conditions. It was demonstrated that the emergence of secondary (β) relaxation requires the application of very high pressures P > 4.

Structural and Dielectric Relaxations in Vitreous and Liquid State of Monohydroxy Alcohol at High Pressure.

2-Ethyl-1-hexanol monoalcohol is a well-known molecular glassformer, which for a long time attracts attention of researchers. As in all other monohydroxy alcohols, its dielectric relaxation reveals two distinct relaxation processes attributed to the structural relaxation and another more intense process, which gives rise to a low-frequency Debye-like relaxation. In this monoalcohol, the frequency separation between these two processes reaches an extremely high value of 3 orders of magnitude, which makes this substance a rather convenient object for studies of mechanisms (supposedly common to all monoalcohols) leading to vitrification of this type of liquids.