Surface-wetting effects on the liquid-liquid transition of a single-component molecular liquid.
Nat Commun 2010;
1:16. [PMID:
20975680 PMCID:
PMC2909503 DOI:
10.1038/ncomms1015]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2010] [Accepted: 04/06/2010] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Even a single-component liquid may have more than two liquid states. The transition between
them is called a 'liquid–liquid transition' (LLT). Such LLTs have recently attracted
considerable attention mainly because of the fundamental interest in the physical origin of
this counter-intuitive phenomenon. In this study, we report the first observation of wetting
effects on LLT for a molecular liquid, triphenyl phosphite. We find a transition from partial to complete
wetting for nucleation-growth-type LLT when approaching the spinodal temperature of LLT.
Some features unique to LLT are also revealed, reflecting for example the non-conserved
nature of its order parameter. We also find that the wetting behaviour is not induced by
dispersion forces, but by weak hydrogen bonding to a solid substrate, implying its important
role in the LLT itself. Using wetting effects may open a new possibility to control kinetics
and spatial patterns of nucleation-growth-type LLT.
A phase transition between two liquid states is a
counterintuitive phenomenon, but one that is known to happen in certain materials. Murata and
Tanaka now show in tryphenyl phosphite that this can also produce a change in the wetting of a
surface, from partial to complete, at the transition temperature.
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