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New from of carbon dioxide: amorphous
Submitted by WebElements on 1 October 2006 - 1:29pm.Only carbon from the Group 14 elements forms stable double bonds with oxygen under normal conditions. When frozen, carbon dioxide is known as "dry-ice". A non-molecular single-bonded crystalline form of carbon dioxide (phase V) exists at high pressure.
Amorphous forms of silica (a-SiO2) and germania (a-GeO2) are known at ambient conditions but only recently has an amorphous, silica-like form of carbon dioxide, a-CO2. This is labelled a-carbonia and made by compression of CO2 at room temperature at pressures between 40 and 48 GPa (that's a staggering 400-500 thousand atmospheres).
