Surface-wetting effects on the liquid-liquid transition of a single-component molecular liquid.
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.
Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, 4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan.
Ken-ichiro
K
Murata
Hajime
H
Tanaka
D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry; D017905:Phosphites / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature; D017155:Wettability
D017905:Phosphites; C013318:triphenyl phosphite