Investigation of Acrylic Acid at High Pressure Using Neutron Diffraction

[Image: see text] This article details the exploration of perdeuterated acrylic acid at high pressure using neutron diffraction. The structural changes that occur in acrylic acid-d(4) 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.