Synthesis of palladium carbides and palladium hydride in laser heated diamond anvil cells

Abstract The diamond anvil cell (DAC) technique is a powerful method for the synthesis and studying of novel materials at extreme conditions. In this work we report on high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) synthesis of palladium carbides (PdCx) and palladium hydride (PdH) in a laser heated diamond anvil cell. Formation of PdCx with a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure resulted from a chemical reaction of Pd with carbon from the diamond anvils at a pressure of about 50 GPa and temperature of 2500–3000 K. The samples were analyzed in situ using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The compressional behavior of PdC0.19(3) and PdC0.17(3), was studied on decompression. The fit of the pressure-volume data using the 3rd order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state gave the following parameters: V0 = 65.1 (1) A3, K 0  = 241 (9) GPa and K 0 '  = 2.1 (3) for PdC0.19(3), and V0 = 64.51 (5) A3, K 0  = 189 (8) GPa and K 0 '  = 4.5 (4) for PdC0.17(3). The palladium hydride PdH was synthesized at P = 39 (2) GPa and T = 1500 (200) K through a direct reaction of Pd with paraffin oil.