Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Polyamorphous phase transition”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

8 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

In situ study on medium-range order evolution during the polyamorphous phase transition in a Pd-Ni-P nanostructured glass

Engineering multiscale structural hierarchies in glassy alloys enable a broad spectrum of potential applications. Metallic glasses were born in hierarchical structures from atomic-to-nanometer scales. However, the frozen-in structures in traditional metallic glasses prepared by rapid quenching techniques are challenging to tailor. Here, we show that a Pd 40 Ni 40 P 20 bulk nanostructured glass of polyamorphous interfacial structures was prepared by inert-gas condensation with a laser evaporation source, and its multiscale structures could be engineered. In-situ scattering experiment results reveal polyamorphous phase transitions occurred in the interfacial regions, which are accompanied by the evolution of medium-range order and the nanoscale heterogeneous structures during the condensation process of glassy nanoparticles under high pressure and the following heating process. Moreover, changes in the cluster connectivity resulting from repacking of the local ordering induced by pressure and temperature could be observed. The thermophysical and mechanical properties, including boson peaks, hardness, and elasticity modulus, could be changed as a function of heat-treatment parameters. In conclusion, our findings would shed light on the synthesis of bulk nanostructured glassy alloys with tailorable thermodynamic and dynamical behavior as well as mechanical properties based on the understanding of metastability for polyamorphous interfacial phases.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Glasses denser than the supercooled liquid

When aged below the glass transition temperature, T g , the density of a glass cannot exceed that of the metastable supercooled liquid (SCL) state, unless crystals are nucleated. The only exception is when another polyamorphic SCL state exists, with a density higher than that of the ordinary SCL. Experimentally, such polyamorphic states and their corresponding liquid–liquid phase transitions have only been observed in network-forming systems or those with polymorphic crystalline states. In otherwise simple liquids, such phase transitions have not been observed, either in aged or vapor-deposited stable glasses, even near the Kauzmann temperature. Here, we report that the density of thin vapor-deposited films of N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD) can exceed their corresponding SCL density by as much as 3.5% and can even exceed the crystal density under certain deposition conditions. We identify a previously unidentified high-density supercooled liquid (HD-SCL) phase with a liquid–liquid phase transition temperature (T LL ) ~35 K below the nominal glass transition temperature of the ordinary SCL. Additionally, the HD-SCL state is observed in glasses deposited in the thickness range of 25 to 55 nm, where thin films of the ordinary SCL have exceptionally enhanced surface mobility with large mobility gradients. The enhanced mobility enables vapor-deposited thin films to overcome kinetic barriers for relaxation and access the HD-SCL state. The HD-SCL state is only thermodynamically favored in thin films and transforms rapidly to the ordinary SCL when the vapor deposition is continued to form films with thicknesses more than 60 nm.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Manifestations of metastable criticality in the long-range structure of model water glasses

Abstract Much attention has been devoted to water’s metastable phase behavior, including polyamorphism (multiple amorphous solid phases), and the hypothesized liquid-liquid transition and associated critical point. However, the possible relationship between these phenomena remains incompletely understood. Using molecular dynamics simulations of the realistic TIP4P/2005 model, we found a striking signature of the liquid-liquid critical point in the structure of water glasses, manifested as a pronounced increase in long-range density fluctuations at pressures proximate to the critical pressure. By contrast, these signatures were absent in glasses of two model systems that lack a critical point. We also characterized the departure from equilibrium upon vitrification via the non-equilibrium index; water-like systems exhibited a strong pressure dependence in this metric, whereas simple liquids did not. These results reflect a surprising relationship between the metastable equilibrium phenomenon of liquid-liquid criticality and the non-equilibrium structure of glassy water, with implications for our understanding of water phase behavior and glass physics. Our calculations suggest a possible experimental route to probing the existence of the liquid-liquid transition in water and other fluids.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Pressure-driven density match nucleates metastable r8 phases from amorphous Si and Ge

The pressure–temperature phase behavior of covalent disordered solids such as amorphous silicon and germanium is complex. Questions remain on possible glass transitions, on polyamorphism via amorphous–amorphous transitions, on connections with liquid–liquid transitions, on structure-behavior relationships, and on their potential as precursor for novel methods for material discovery. Here we demonstrate experimentally the nucleation of a metastable, four-fold coordinated rhombohedral r8 phase from pure amorphous silicon and germanium upon room temperature compression at pressures below 10 GPa. Accompanying theory reveals a strong pressure-driven distortion of the bond angle transforming the starting tetrahedral low-density amorphous network to a distorted four-fold coordinated medium-density state. This state is of lower density than metallic high-density networks, resembles the crystalline r8 phase and initiates its nucleation. Our finding shows that polyamorphism is not the only possible transformation mode for these amorphous solids and that instead nucleation of interesting functional phases at potentially useful pressures is possible. Such novel access modes to metastable structures are critical for future exploitability and could be useful for other tetrahedral materials including carbon, where the related (bc8) post-diamond phase remains elusive. Our observed density match between an amorphous and a metastable crystalline phase clearly allows for a new phase transition pathway, while corresponding theory demonstrates how carefully validated atomistic simulations can guide prediction, discovery and synthesis of novel material structures.

Materials discovery↗
DOE OSTI2020

Unravelling the mechanism of pressure induced polyamorphic transition in an inorganic molecular glass

The atomic structure of a germanium doped phosphorous selenide glass of composition Ge 2.8 P 57.7 Se 39.5 is determined as a function of pressure from ambient to 24 GPa using Monte-Carlo simulations constrained by high energy x-ray scattering data. The ambient pressure structure consists primarily of P 4 Se 3 molecules and planar edge shared phosphorus rings, reminiscent of those found in red phosphorous as well as a small fraction of locally clustered corner-sharing GeSe 4 tetrahedra. This low-density amorphous phase transforms into a high-density amorphous phase at ~6.3 GPa. The high-pressure phase is characterized by an extended network structure. The polyamorphic transformation between these two phases involves opening of the P 3 ring at the base of the P 4 Se 3 molecules and subsequent reaction with red phosphorus type moieties to produce a cross linked structure. The compression mechanism of the low-density phase involves increased molecular packing, whereas that of the high pressure phase involves an increase in the nearest-neighbor coordination number while the bond angle distributions broaden and shift to smaller angles. The entropy and volume changes associated with this polyamorphic transformation are positive and negative, respectively, and consequently the corresponding Clapeyron slope for this transition would be negative. This result has far reaching implications in our current understanding of the thermodynamics of polyamorphic transitions in glasses and glass-forming liquids.

42 ENGINEERING↗
NASA NTRS2004

Microgravity Studies of Liquid-Liquid Phase Transitions in Alumina-Yttria Melts

The scientific objective of this research is to increase the fundamental knowledge base for liquid- phase processing of technologically important oxide materials. The experimental objective is to define conditions and hardware requirements for microgravity flight experiments to test and expand the experimental hypotheses that: 1. Liquid phase transitions can occur in undercooled melts by a diffusionless process. 2. Onset of the liquid phase transition is accompanied by a large change in the temperature dependence of melt viscosity. Experiments on undercooled YAG (Y3A15012)- and rare earth oxide aluminate composition liquids demonstrated a large departure from an Arrhenian temperature dependence of viscosity. Liquid YAG is nearly inviscid at its 2240 K melting point. Glass fibers were pulled from melts undercooled by ca. 600 K indicating that the viscosity is on the order of 100 Pans (1000 Poise) at 1600 K. This value of viscosity is 500 times greater than that obtained by extrapolation of data for temperatures above the melting point of YAG. These results show that the liquids are extremely fragile and that the onset of the highly non-Arrhenian viscosity-temperature relationship occurs at a temperature considerably below the equilibrium melting point of the solid phases. Further results on undercooled alumina-yttria melts containing 23-42 mole % yttrium oxide indicate that a congruent liquid-liquid phase transition occurs in the undercooled liquids. The rates of transition are inconsistent with a diffusion-limited process. This research is directed to investigation of the scientifically interesting phenomena of polyamorphism and fragility in undercooled rare earth oxide aluminum oxide liquids. The results bear on the technologically important problem of producing high value rare earth-based optical materials.

Guynes, Buddy↗
DOE OSTI2022

Transient Mesoscopic Immiscibility, Viscosity Anomaly, and High Internal Pressure at the Semiconductor–Metal Transition in Liquid Ga 2 Te 3

Gallium tellurides appear to be promising phase-change materials (PCMs) of the next generation for brain-inspired computing and reconfigurable optical metasurfaces. They are different from the benchmark PCMs because of sp 3 gallium hybridization in both cubic Ga 2 Te 3 and amorphous pulsed laser deposition (PLD) films. Liquid Ga 2 Te 3 also shows a viscosity η(T) anomaly just above melting when η(T) first increases and only then starts decreasing. We used high-energy X-ray diffraction to observe a transient mesoscopic immiscibility that suggested dense metallic liquid droplets in a semiconducting melt. The η(T) shape was consistent with this finding. A vanishing first sharp diffraction peak that also shifts to a higher Q indicates a high internal pressure in the metallic melt, which produces a remarkable asymmetry of the Ga–Te nearest neighbor distances and is reminiscent of high-pressure rhombohedral Ga 2 Te 3 . Finally, the observed phenomena provide a realistic scenario for a fast, multilevel SET–RESET response, which also unravels similar trends in the purported density-driven liquid polyamorphism of water, phosphorus, sulfur, and other materials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Polyamorphism in a solute-lean Al–Ce metallic glass

Polyamorphism discovered in lanthanide-rich metallic glasses (MGs) has been attributed to the electronic transition of the lanthanide element as a solvent element. In this work, we report that pressure-induced polyamorphism still exists in a Ce-poor Al 93 Ce 7 binary MG where the 4f electron element serves as a solute and solute–solute avoidance is expected. The polyamorphic transition, observed by in situ high-pressure synchrotron x-ray diffraction, is accompanied by a volume collapse of ~0.78% and occurs over a narrow pressure range from ~0.8 to ~1.8 GPa. Further synchrotron Ce L 3 -edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements reveal that pressure-induced 4f electron delocalization underlies the polyamorphic transition. Molecular dynamics simulations confirm that the Ce atoms in the MG are completely isolated by the solvent Al atoms. This result demonstrates that 4f element-bearing alloys with extremely dilute concentrations can also exhibit polyamorphic states originating from electronic transitions, extending the compositional space of polyamorphism of MGs into very dilute regions. Our work suggests that tunable properties under compressive stress could be achieved in MGs by even minor doping of elements prone to electronic transitions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗