Evolution of disorder in Zn(CN)2 at high pressure

Zinc cyanide is an interesting negative thermal expansion (NTE) material exhibiting cubic structure at ambient pressure and temperature. We have investigated the structural stability of zinc cyanide under high pressure up to 5.2 GPa by performing X-ray powder diffraction in a diamond anvil cell. Under very low pressure of about 0.6 GPa, the diffraction peaks drastically reduce in intensity, indicating possible onset of disorder in the structure. In this paper, its high pressure structural and compressibility behaviour, bulk modulus and the pressure derivative of bulk modulus are reported.