Prof. Tetsuo Irifune [Ehime University, Japan]

[Ehime University, Japan]

Title: Multianvil technology and its application to synthesis of polycrystalline gems

Time: 10:00 - 11:30, August 21

Place: Conference Room 201, Building 6, HPSTAR (Shanghai)

Abstract:

Synthesis of novel materials under high pressure and temperature on a commercial basis has been limited to pressures far below 10 GPa until recent success of production of nano-polycrystalline diamond (NPD or Hime diamond) using Kawai-type multianvil apparatus (KMA). Pressures available in KMA now reach as high as 100 GPa, using sintered diamond anvils, with accurately controlled temperature/pressure and relatively large sample volumes compared to those in diamond anvil cell. Here, I will talk about the basics of multianvil technology and its recent developments. Synthesis, characteristics, and applications of NPD are then reviewed as an example of high-pressure and temperature synthesis of novel ultrahard materials using KMA. Application of this technology for production of high-quality sintered bodies of polycrystalline high-pressure phases, named as “poly gems”, is also presented with some preliminary results in synthesizing highly transparent polycrystalline garnets.

Biography of the speaker:

Professor Tetsuo Irifune is Director of the Geodynamics Research Center, Ehime University, Japan. He received his BSc from Kyoto University (Japan), his MSc from Nagoya University (Japan), and his PhD from Hokkaido University (Japan). His current research activity concerns mineral physics and the synthesis of new materials.

He received the Humboldt Research Award, the Japan Mineralogical Society Award, the Award of the Japan Society of High Pressure Science & Technology, the Ishikawa Carbon Prize. He is Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Professor Irifune was elected President of the AIRAPT in 2011.