- High pressure
High pressure
science andengineering is studying the effects of high pressure on materials and the design and construction of devices, such as adiamond anvil cell , which can create highpressure . By high pressure it is meant pressures of thousands (kilobars) or millions (megabars) of times atmospheric pressure (about 1 bar).It was by applying high pressure as well as high
temperature tocarbon that man-made diamonds were first produced as well as many other interesting discoveries. Almost any material when subjected to high pressure will compact itself into a denser form, for example,quartz , also calledsilica orsilicon dioxide will first adopt a denser form known ascoesite , then upon application of more temperature, formstishovite . These two forms of silica were first discovered by high pressure experimenters, but then found in nature at the site of a meteor impact.High pressure experimentation has led to the discovery of the types of minerals which are believed to exist in core of the Earth, such as
perovskite which is thought to make up half of the Earth's bulk.High pressure food preservation
High pressure isostatic presses are also being used for the treatment and preservation of food (juice, meat, seafood). The process is replacing pasteurization in high value, heat sensitive products successfully. Products treated with this method are sometimes designated as HPP (high pressure products).
ee also
Synthetic diamond External links
* [http://www.hppi.troitsk.ru/ Institute for High Pressure Physics] Russian Academy of Sciences
* [http://to2084.narod.ru/ V.Grishin's ElectroCumulation CNF Project]Further reading
*The New Alchemists: Breaking Through the Barriers of High Pressure, Robert M. Hazen, Times Books, Random House, 1993, hardcover, 286 pages, ISBN 0-8129-2275-1
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