title: Frustration of crystallisation by a liquid-crystal phase.
abstract: Frustration of crystallisation by locally favoured structures is critically important in linking the phenomena of supercooling, glass formation, and liquid-liquid transitions. Here we show that the putative liquid-liquid transition in n-butanol is in fact caused by geometric frustration associated with an isotropic to rippled lamellar liquid-crystal transition. Liquid-crystal phases are generally regarded as being "in between" the liquid and the crystalline state. In contrast, the liquid-crystal phase in supercooled n-butanol is found to inhibit transformation to the crystal. The observed frustrated phase is a template for similar ordering in other liquids and likely to play an important role in supercooling and liquid-liquid transitions in many other molecular liquids.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, WestCHEM, University of Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Syme
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, WestCHEM, University of Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mosses
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, WestCHEM, University of Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: González-Jiménez
authors.affiliation: Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, UK.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shebanova
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, WestCHEM, University of Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Finlay
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Walton
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, WestCHEM, University of Glasgow, UK.
authors.forename: Klaas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wynne