Carbon dioxide binary crystals via the thermal decomposition of RDX at high pressure.

A carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide solid solution has been captured in a diamond anvil cell following the thermal decomposition of 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) at high temperatures and pressures. This is the first time a carbon dioxide binary solid has been observed at high pressure. This observation has stimulated low temperature crystallographic studies of this binary system using recently developed gas absorption apparatus and computational modelling.