A comparative analysis of structural properties on single and poly-crystalline potassium sulfate crystals at shock wave loaded conditions

Abstract In recent years, the investigation of the effect of shock waves on crystalline materials has emerged as a prolific research area in materials science branch. The impact of shock waves on K2SO4 was investigated such that the molecular and structural stabilities under pre and post-shock wave loaded conditions at Mach number 2.2 with 50 and 100 shocks were established. Molecular stability of the test samples has been identified making use of FTIR spectrometer and the structural stability of the samples has been investigated by a Powder X-ray diffractometer (PXRD) which reveals that shock waves induce lattice orientational changes and micro distortions but, the original crystal system is not affected. The above-mentioned crystallographic studies show the impressive physical properties of K2SO4 which also has a stable crystal structure under shock wave loaded conditions. A comparison of single and poly-crystalline structural responses has been made with respect to the number of shock pulses. The fascinating findings of the shock wave impacts on K2SO4 samples are clearly discussed in this article.