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Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

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Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...

Parallel-axis Theorem

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Freezing Point Depression and Boiling Point Elevation

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 23, 2026

Determining the Ice-binding Planes of Antifreeze Proteins by Fluorescence-based Ice Plane Affinity

Determining the Ice-binding Planes of Antifreeze Proteins by Fluorescence-based Ice Plane Affinity

Published on: January 15, 2014

Freezing of parallel hard cubes with rounded edges.

Matthieu Marechal¹, Urs Zimmermann, Hartmut Löwen

¹Institut für Theoretische Physik II: Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.

The Journal of Chemical Physics

|April 17, 2012

Summary

Researchers explored how rounding affects the freezing transition in cube-shaped particles. Rounded cubes transition from fluid to crystal, with the freezing type changing as rounding increases.

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Published on: May 24, 2018

Area of Science:

Physics
Materials Science
Computational Chemistry

Background:

Understanding phase transitions in matter is crucial for materials design.
Hard cubes and hard spheres represent fundamental models in statistical mechanics.
The effect of particle shape on freezing transitions is a key area of research.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the freezing transition in three-dimensional rounded hard cubes.
To map the equilibrium phase diagram as a function of volume fraction and rounding.
To understand how particle shape influences crystal structure and transition order.

Main Methods:

Computer simulations were employed to model particle behavior.
Fundamental-measure density functional theory was utilized for theoretical analysis.
A rounding parameter (s) was varied to interpolate between cubes and spheres.

Main Results:

The freezing transition remains second-order up to a rounding parameter of s = 0.65.
At s = 0.65, the transition shifts to first-order, forming sheared simple cubic or deformed face-centered cubic lattices.
The simple-cubic crystal phase exhibits significant vacancy concentrations.

Conclusions:

The rounding of hard cubes significantly alters their freezing behavior and resulting crystal structures.
The study provides insights into controlling crystallization through particle shape modification.
Experimental realization in colloids is feasible with advanced techniques and external fields.