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Letter

Nature Materials 6, 34–38 (1 January 2007) | doi:10.1038/nmat1800

Six-fold coordinated carbon dioxide VI

Valentin Iota , Choong-Shik Yoo , Jae-Hyun Klepeis , Zsolt Jenei , William Evans & Hyunchae Cynn

Under standard conditions, carbon dioxide (CO2) is a simple molecular gas and an important atmospheric constituent, whereas silicon dioxide (SiO2) is a covalent solid, and one of the fundamental minerals of the planet. The remarkable dissimilarity between these two group IV oxides is diminished at higher pressures and temperatures as CO2 transforms to a series of solid phases, from simple molecular to a fully covalent extended-solid V, structurally analogous to SiO2 tridymite.