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Detection of early stage precursor during formation of plastic crystal ethanol from the supercooled liquid state: a
Alejandro Sanz1, Aurora Nogales, Inés Puente-Orench
1Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, IEM-CSIC, Serrano 121, 28006 Madrid, Spain. asanz@iem.cfmac.csic.es
Abstract:
Transformation of deuterated ethanol from supercooled liquid into a plastic crystal or rotator phase is investigated by means of a particular experimental setup combining simultaneously dielectric spectroscopy with neutron diffraction techniques. We demonstrate that, previous to the growth of the bcc lattice of the plastic crystal phase, the formation of a precursor or intermediate phase through a liquid-liquid phase separation takes place. Once this precursor phase is formed, subsequent (plastic) crystalline nucleation and growth is expected to develop.

