Effect of precompression on pressure-transmitting efficiency of pyrophyllite gaskets

Pyrophyllite is widely used both as a gasket material and as a pressure-transmitting medium, especially for a large-volume press. Its pressure-transmitting efficiency mainly depends on the following factors: geometry of anvil and pyrophyllite block, chemical composition, density and strength. For a long time, most studies have been devoted to the first two factors, whereas the third one has been studied less. In this work, we report that the pressure-transmitting efficiency of pyrophyllite is improved by pre-compressing. The results show that pyrophyllite was fully densified when the pressure reached about 1GPa. The press load for Ba I-II transition in the cubic large-volume pressure cell is reduced more than 8 x 10(5) N by using the densified pyrophyllite, compared with the unprecompressed pyrophyllite. Namely, the press-load utilization efficiency was improved above 15% when the precompressed pyrophyllite is used as a pressure-transmitting medium.