Abstract
Surface tension measurements reveal surface freezing in liquid n-alkanes. A solid monolayer of molecules is found to exist up to 3°C above the bulk freezing point. This surface phase exists only for carbon numbers 14<n≤50. The measured carbon number and temperature dependence of the surface tension is interpreted within a simple thermodynamical model based on known bulk latent heat data and surface energy considerations. The vanishing of the surface phase for n≤14 is a possible transition from surface freezing to surface melting behavior.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1018-1021 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Science |
| Volume | 261 |
| Issue number | 5124 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1993 |