title: A maximum-entropy approach to the adiabatic freezing of a supercooled liquid.
abstract: I employ the van der Waals theory of Baus and co-workers to analyze the fast, adiabatic decay of a supercooled liquid in a closed vessel with which the solidification process usually starts. By imposing a further constraint on either the system volume or pressure, I use the maximum-entropy method to quantify the fraction of liquid that is transformed into solid as a function of undercooling and of the amount of a foreign gas that could possibly be also present in the test tube. Upon looking at the implications of thermal and mechanical insulation for the energy cost of forming a solid droplet within the liquid, I identify one situation where the onset of solidification inevitably occurs near the wall in contact with the bath.
authors: Dipartimento di Fisica e di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Messina, Messina, Italy. sprestipino@unime.it
authors: Santi
authors: S
authors: Prestipino
mesh_terms: D003080:Cold Temperature; D019277:Entropy; D005615:Freezing; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions