Study of the reaction products of SF6 and C in the laser heated diamond anvil cell by pair distribution function analysis and micro-Raman spectroscopy

Abstract The decomposition of SF 6 in the presence of glassy carbon was induced in laser heated diamond anvil cells at 10–11 GPa and 2000–2500 K. The reaction products were characterised by synchrotron X-ray diffraction, including high pressure pair distribution function analysis, and micro-Raman spectroscopy combined with atomistic model calculations. The decomposition leads to elemental amorphous helical sulfur and crystalline CF 4 -III. Two different sulfur phases, namely helical S μ and crystalline α-S 8 , were observed after recovering the laser heated samples of different experiments at ambient conditions.