Surface Tension Measurements of Surface Freezing in Liquid Normal Alkanes
- 20 August 1993
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 261 (5124) , 1018-1021
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.261.5124.1018
Abstract
Surface tension measurements reveal surface freezing in liquid n -alkanes. A solid monolayer of molecules is found to exist up to 30°C above the bulk freezing point. This surface phase exists only for carbon numbers 14 < n ≤ 50. The measured carbon number and temperature dependence of the surface tension is interpreted within a simple thermodynamical model based on known bulk latent heat data and surface energy considerations. The vanishing of the surface phase for n ≤ 14 is a possible transition from surface freezing to surface melting behavior.Keywords
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