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Negative linear compressibility

Giant response

Nature Materials volume 12, pages 182–183 (2013)Cite this article

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Materials displaying negative linear compressibility are, at present, the exception rather than the rule. An unusually large and persistent example of this phenomenon in the molecular framework material zinc dicyanoaurate dramatically expands the range of mechanical responses conceivable in other materials.

Our everyday experience with most materials, be they naturally occurring or synthetically prepared, is that they shrink when squeezed. Indeed, the opposite scenario of a material that simultaneously expands in all three spatial directions under an applied hydrostatic pressure is thermodynamically forbidden1. However, it has recently become appreciated that some materials reduce their volume by becoming longer in one direction while becoming shorter in the others, a phenomenon known as negative linear compressibility (NLC). Writing in Nature Materials, Andrew Cairns and colleagues2 now report the discovery of an exceptionally large NLC in the α-polymorph of zinc dicyanoaurate (Zn(Au(CN)2)2), therefore demonstrating the effect can be much larger than previously thought possible.

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Figure 1: Negative linear compressibility mechanisms2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ruben Gatt, Roberto Caruana-Gauci and Joseph N. Grima are at the Metamaterials Unit, Faculty of Science, University of Malta, Msida MSD 2080, Malta,

    Ruben Gatt, Roberto Caruana-Gauci & Joseph N. Grima

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  1. Ruben Gatt
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  2. Roberto Caruana-Gauci
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  3. Joseph N. Grima
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Correspondence to Joseph N. Grima.

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Gatt, R., Caruana-Gauci, R. & Grima, J. Giant response. Nature Mater 12, 182–183 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3584

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