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Updated: Jul 16, 2026

Metal-silicate Partitioning at High Pressure and Temperature: Experimental Methods and a Protocol to Suppress Highly Siderophile Element Inclusions
Published on: June 13, 2015
Noblest of all metals is structurally unstable at high pressure
L Dubrovinsky1, N Dubrovinskaia, W A Crichton
1Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, D-95440 Bayreuth, Germany.
Abstract:
In a series of experiments in externally electrically heated diamond anvil cells we demonstrate that at pressures above approximately 240 GPa gold adopts a hexagonal-close-packed structure. Ab initio calculations predict that at pressures about 250 GPa different stacking sequences of close-packed atomic layers in gold become virtually degenerate in energy, strongly supporting the experimental observations.
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