High-pressure studies of cyclohexane to 40 GPa.

We present data from two room temperature synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction studies of cyclohexane up to ∼40 and ∼20 GPa. In the first experiment, pressure cycling was employed wherein pressure was varied up to ∼16 GPa, reduced to 3.5 GPa, and then raised again to 40 GPa. Initially, the sample was found to be in the monoclinic phase (P121/n1) at ∼8.4 GPa. Beyond this pressure, the sample adopted triclinic unit cell symmetry (P1) which remained so even when the pressure was reduced to 3.5 GPa, indicating significant hysteresis and metastability. In the second experiment, pressure was more slowly varied, and the monoclinic unit cell structure (P121/n1) was observed at lower pressures up to ∼7 GPa, above which a phase transformation into the P1 triclinic unit cell symmetry occurred. Thus, the pressure onset of the triclinic phase may be dependent upon the pressurizing conditions. High-pressure Raman data that further emphasize a phase transition (probably into phase VI) around 10 GPa are also presented. W...