Investigation of acrylic acid at high pressure using neutron diffraction

This article details the exploration of perdeuterated acrylic acid at high pressure using neutron diffraction. The structural changes that occur in acrylic acid-d4 are followed via diffraction and rationalized using the Pixel method. Acrylic acid undergoes a reconstructive phase transition to a new phase at ∼ 0.8 GPa and remains molecular to 7.2 GPa before polymerizing on decompression to ambient pressure. The resulting product is analyzed via Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry and found to possess a different molecular structure compared with polymers produced via traditional routes.