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Phase Transitions02:31

Phase Transitions

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Whether solid, liquid, or gas, a substance's state depends on the order and arrangement of its particles (atoms, molecules, or ions). Particles in the solid pack closely together, generally in a pattern. The particles vibrate about their fixed positions but do not move or squeeze past their neighbors. In liquids, although the particles are closely spaced, they are randomly arranged. The position of the particles are not fixed—that is, they are free to move past their neighbors to...
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Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing02:39

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...
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Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition02:33

Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition

17.3K
Some solids can transition directly into the gaseous state, bypassing the liquid state, via a process known as sublimation. At room temperature and standard pressure, a piece of dry ice (solid CO2) sublimes, appearing to gradually disappear without ever forming any liquid. Snow and ice sublimate at temperatures below the melting point of water, a slow process that may be accelerated by winds and the reduced atmospheric pressures at high altitudes. When solid iodine is warmed, the solid sublimes...
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Phase Transitions: Vaporization and Condensation02:39

Phase Transitions: Vaporization and Condensation

17.8K
The physical form of a substance changes on changing its temperature. For example, raising the temperature of a liquid causes the liquid to vaporize (convert into vapor). The process is called vaporization—a surface phenomenon. Vaporization occurs when the thermal motion of the molecules overcome the intermolecular forces, and the molecules (at the surface) escape into the gaseous state. When a liquid vaporizes in a closed container, gas molecules cannot escape. As these gas phase...
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Phase Changes01:19

Phase Changes

4.4K
Phase transitions play an important theoretical and practical role in the study of heat flow. In melting or fusion, a solid turns into a liquid; the opposite process is freezing. In evaporation, a liquid turns into a gas; the opposite process is condensation.
A substance melts or freezes at a temperature called its melting point and boils or condenses at its boiling point. These temperatures depend on pressure. High pressure favors the denser form of the substance, so typically, high pressure...
4.4K
Phase Diagram01:19

Phase Diagram

6.0K
The phase of a given substance depends on the pressure and temperature. Thus, plots of pressure versus temperature showing the phase in each region provide considerable insights into the thermal properties of substances. Such plots are known as phase diagrams. For instance, in the phase diagram for water (Figure 1), the solid curve boundaries between the phases indicate phase transitions (i.e., temperatures and pressures at which the phases coexist).
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Liquid-cell Transmission Electron Microscopy for Tracking Self-assembly of Nanoparticles
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Reversible Diffusionless Phase Transitions in 3D Nanoparticle Superlattices.

Daryl W Yee1, Margaret S Lee1, Joyce An1

  • 1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.

Journal of the American Chemical Society
|March 10, 2023
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Polymer brush-grafted nanoparticles form ordered superlattices. Researchers discovered a reversible phase transition between face-centered-cubic and body-centered-cubic structures, enabling control over microstructure.

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Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Nanotechnology
  • Crystallography

Background:

  • Nanocomposite tectons (NCTs) are polymer brush-grafted nanoparticles that self-assemble into ordered nanoparticle superlattices (NPSLs) via supramolecular interactions.
  • Thermal annealing typically leads to well-defined unit cell symmetries in NPSLs.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To demonstrate control over NCT lattice microstructure by balancing enthalpic and entropic factors during crystallization.
  • To investigate the phase transition behavior of NCTs in response to solvent-induced changes in polymer brush conformation.

Main Methods:

  • Assembly of unary NCT systems using small molecules to mediate supramolecular bonding.
  • Induction of phase transitions by transferring FCC lattices to solvents that cause polymer brush collapse.
  • Characterization of microstructural features, including transformation twinning.

Main Results:

  • NCTs initially form face-centered-cubic (FCC) lattices in favorable solvents.
  • A reversible, diffusionless phase transition from FCC to body-centered-cubic (BCC) lattices occurs upon transfer to a collapsing solvent.
  • BCC superlattices exhibit transformation twinning, similar to martensitic alloys, while retaining the FCC crystal habit.

Conclusions:

  • Control over NPSL microstructure is achievable by manipulating assembly and processing conditions.
  • The observed diffusionless phase transformation offers a novel mechanism for creating unique microstructures in nanoparticle assemblies.
  • NPSLs can serve as model systems for studying microstructural evolution and as analogues for atomic crystalline materials.