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Phase transitions commonly refer to when a substance transforms between one of the four states of matter to another. At the phase transition point for a substance, for instance the boiling point, the two phases involved - liquid and vapor, have identical free energies and therefore are equally likely to exist.
For example, when water evaporates, the increase in kinetic energy as the evaporating molecules escape the attractive forces of the liquid is reflected in a decrease in temperature. The energy required to induce the phase transition is taken from the internal thermal energy of the water, which cools the liquid to a lower temperature; hence ...
In chemistry and chemical physics, a mesophase or mesomorphic phase is a phase of matter intermediate between solid and liquid. Gelatin is a common example of a partially ordered structure in a mesophase. Further, biological structures such as the lipid bilayers of cell membranes are examples of mesophases. Mobile ions in mesophases are either ...
Liquid crystal states have properties intermediate between mobile liquids and ordered solids. Generally, they are able to flow like a liquid, but exhibiting long-range order. For example, the nematic phase consists of long rod-like molecules such as para-azoxyanisole, which is nematic in the temperature range 118–136 °C (244–277 °F). [10]
Liquid crystal lenses are a kind of adaptive optics. Imaging systems can benefit from focusing correction, image plane adjustment, or changing the range of depth-of-field or depth of focus. The liquid crystal lense is one of the candidates to develop vision correction devices for myopia and presbyopia (e.g., tunable eyeglass and smart contact ...
A CPT describes a cusp in the thermodynamic properties of a system. It signals a reorganization of the particles; A typical example is the freezing transition of water describing the transition between liquid and solid. The classical phase transitions are driven by a competition between the energy of a system and the entropy of its thermal ...
For a liquid–gas transition, is the molar latent heat (or molar enthalpy) of vaporization; for a solid–gas transition, is the molar latent heat of sublimation. If the latent heat is known, then knowledge of one point on the coexistence curve , for instance (1 bar, 373 K) for water, determines the rest of the curve.
For example, oil droplets in a salad dressing are spherical but the interface between water and air in a glass of water is mostly flat. Surface tension is the physical property which rules interface processes involving liquids. For a liquid film on flat surfaces, the liquid-vapor interface keeps flat to minimize interfacial area and system free ...