Nano materials under high pressures

Abstract

Materials comprising of units or particles of the size of a few nano-meters have significantly different high pressure behavior than their bulk counterparts. This is abundantly elucidated in our studies on transition metals encapsulated in carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes filled with Argon also show that it affects the behavior of tubes as well as argon. Studies on nano-crystalline Si displays an interesting crystalline-amorphous reversible transition, unique of its kind in elemental solids. We also demonstrate that in some cases of nanocrystalline samples, a phase perceived to be an intermediate-transient may be actually realized.