Surface and bulk phase behavior of dry and hydrated tetradecanol: Octadecanol alcohol mixtures

A study of surface freezing in dry and hydrated octadecanol:tetradecanol mixtures was performed using surface tension and synchrotron x-ray surface diffraction techniques. A sharp increase in the bulk supercooling occurred at molar concentration (φ)≈0.4 in dry mixtures upon increasing the bulk mole fraction of C₁₈OH. The dependence of the surface freezing onset temperature of both mixtures and hydrated bulk's freezing temperature on φ was shown by a thermodynamical model.