Dynamic Diamond Anvil Cells as a Tool For Kinetic Studies

Understanding the kinetics of pressure-induced phase transitions is of broad interest to the fields of both materials science and geoscience; however these studies have previously been complicated by difficulties in achieving both the rapid change from initial conditions and stable pressure conditions that are required in classical kinetic studies. This work focuses on the use of a piezo-electrically driven dynamic diamond anvil cell (dDAC) to achieve a rapid pressure change followed by a steady pressure that enables assessment of a materials transformation kinetics. This technique has been applied to both covalently bonded CdSe and metallically bonded iron and measurements of kinetics have been made during in-situ time-resolved X-ray diffraction at Sector 16-IDB of the Advanced Photon Source.