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

The decomposition of SF6 in the presence of glassy carbon was induced in laser heated diamond anvil cells at 10 to 11GPa and 2000 to 2500K. 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 CF4-III. Two different sulfur phases, namely helical Sμ and crystalline α-S8, were observed after recovering the laser heated samples of different experiments at ambient conditions.