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 rationalised 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 polymerising on decompression to ambient pressure. The resulting product is analysed via Raman, FT-IR spectroscopy and Differential Scanning Calorimetry and found to possess a different molecular structure compared with polymers produced via traditional routes.