High pressure studies on molten zinc chloride

The structure of molten zinc chloride was investigated at pressures up to 3000 bar and temperatures up to 500°C with a new high pressure cell. The distinct terms and the total atom pair correlation functions were determined with high energy photons. The distinct terms show systematic change in the low κ-range between 0 and 3 Å^-1 as a function of the applied pressure. A reduction of the first sharp diffraction peak (prepeak) intensity of the distinct part is observed with increasing pressure. It is concluded, that this behaviour indicates a network breaking tendency of the corner shared [ZnCl₄]^2- tetrahedra with increasing pressure, while the tetrahedra themselves remain unchanged over the whole applied pressure and temperature range.