Polymerization of formic acid under high pressure

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 Feb 18;94(6):065505. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.065505. Epub 2005 Feb 17.

Abstract

We report Raman, infrared, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements, along with ab initio calculations on formic acid (FA) under pressure up to 50 GPa. We find an infinite chain Pna2(1) structure to be a high-pressure phase at room temperature. Our data indicate the symmetrization and a partially covalent character of the intrachain hydrogen bonds above approximately 20 GPa. Raman spectra and XRD patterns indicate a loss of long-range order at pressures above 40 GPa, with a large hysteresis upon decompression. We attribute this behavior to a three-dimensional polymerization of FA.