Drastic enhancement of crystal nucleation in a molecular liquid by its liquid-liquid transition.

ABSTRACT: Crystallization is one of the most familiar and fundamental phase transition phenomena. There is a possibility that crystallization may be enhanced by critical-like fluctuations associated with another nearby phase transition if the order parameter of the former is coupled to that of the latter; however, the mechanism of such order parameter coupling and its generality remain elusive due to the lack of experimental studies. Here we report experimental evidence for a nontrivial coupling between crystallization and liquid-liquid transition (LLT) for a molecular liquid, triphenyl phosphite. We find that the crystal nucleation frequency is drastically enhanced by short-time preannealing near but above the spinodal temperature of LLT. By successfully separating the thermodynamic and kinetic fac

SUBMITTER: Kurita R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6911185 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature