Critical-Like Phenomena Associated with Liquid-Liquid Transition in a Molecular Liquid
Rei Kurita and
Hajime Tanaka*
Contrary to the conventional wisdom that there is only one unique
liquid state for any material, recent evidence suggests that
there can be more than two liquid states even for a single-component
substance. The transition between these liquid states is called
a liquid-liquid phase transition. We report the detailed experimental
investigation on the kinetics of the continuous spinodal-decomposition-type
transformation of one liquid into another for triphenyl phosphite.
From the analysis of the linear regime, we found that the correlation
length,
, of fluctuations of the relevant order parameter diverges
as
=
0[(
TSD –
T)/
TSD]
–
(where
0 = 60 nm and
=
0.5) while approaching the spinodal temperature,
TSD. This is
an indication of a critical-like anomaly associated with the
liquid-liquid transition. We also revealed that the order parameter
governing the liquid-liquid transition must be of a nonconserved
nature.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tanaka{at}iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
