Author(s)

Kenichi Takemura

Institute of Materials Structure Science (IMSS), High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Japan.

A historical review is presented on the experimental and theoretical studies on Zn under high pressure. Based on our high-pressure powder x-ray diffraction experiments that have been done for nearly a decade, we describe the structural change of Zn up to 126 GPa at room temperature. Although several experimental and theoretical studies indicated an anomalous change of the c/a axial ratio with pressure, we found no such an anomaly within our experimental uncertainty. Our high-pressure low-temperature experiments up to 18 GPa at 40 K also gave no evidence of the c/a anomaly. We suspect that the pressure-transmitting media played an important role in producing the anomaly. The structural anisotropy of Zn is drastically reduced at high pressures, which would be a general trend for hexagonal close-packed (hcp) metals.

Zinc, High Pressure, Crystal Structure, Electronic Topological Transition

Takemura, K. (2019) The Zinc Story under High Pressure. Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 7, 354-372. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2019.75024.