Pressure-induced oligomerization of benzene at room temperature as a precursory reaction of amorphization.

Oligomerization of benzene at high pressures up to 16 GPa was investigated at room temperature using an opposed-anvil type pressure apparatus. The recovered samples were analyzed using GC-MS to identify and quantify the products after the high-pressure experiments. Some structural isomers of benzene dimer as well as biphenyl, naphthalene, and terphenyl isomers were detected at pressures higher than 13 GPa. The molar yield of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons increased concomitantly with increasing pressure, although benzene still remained. The oligomerization is likely to occur when the neighbor distance of the benzene molecules exceeds the threshold of the reaction distance. The oligomerization is regarded as a precursory phenomenon of the amorphization that occurs at higher pressure.