The effect of pressure, and formation of new polymorphs of the amino acids L-cysteine and L-serine

Abstract

With the notable exceptions of water, ammonia and a very limited number of other examples, there have been relatively few highpressure structural studies of simple molecular compounds. Such studies can provide fascinating information about intermolecular interactions and pressure-induced phase transition, in particular hydrogen-bonding interactions. Recent results for thiourea and urea obtained from the experiments on neutron beamlines at the UK ISIS facilities have shown a very rich high-pressure behaviour [1]. In the light of these results, we have undertaken neutron and synchrotron studies on thiourea dioxide, which has been selected by virtue of its interesting ambient pressure structure [2]. We report a phase transition between a powder sample of orthorhombic phase I of thiourea dioxide to a new monoclinic phase II at a pressure of 0.54 GPa. This transition has also been observed in a single crystal sample at a pressure of 0.45 GPa. We also report an unusual isostructural transformation in thiourea dioxide at 6.8 GPa that involves the formation of a new hydrogen bond.