Surface crystallization and thin film melting in normal alkanes
- Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States). Physics Dept.
- Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Physics
- Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States). Physics Dept.
- Bar Ilan Univ., Ramat Gan (Israel). Physics Dept.
- Exxon Research and Engineering Co., Annandale, NJ (United States). Corporate Research Science Labs.
Normal alkanes of carbon number n > 14 exhibit surface crystallization at their liquid-vapor interface. This has been investigated with x-ray reflectivity, grazing incidence scattering and surface tension measurements. The structure and thermodynamics of the surface layer is consistent with a monolayer of the bulk rotator phase occurring at the surface above the bulk melting temperature. On the other hand, thin films of alkanes on SiO{sub 2}, exhibit a reduction of the melting temperature. The surface crystalline phase is observed for carbon number n > 14. The vanishing of surface phase for small n may be due to a transition from surface freezing to surface melting behavior. These measurements can yield the relative surface energies of the various phases. 41 refs.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76CH00016
- OSTI ID:
- 10117552
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-61312; CONF-941144-57; ON: DE95006694; TRN: AHC29508%%28
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Fall meeting of the Materials Research Society (MRS),Boston, MA (United States),28 Nov - 9 Dec 1994; Other Information: PBD: [1994]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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