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Supercooling, [1] also known as undercooling, [2] [3] is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid below its freezing point without it becoming a solid.
In condensed matter physics and physical chemistry, the terms viscous liquid, supercooled liquid, and glass forming liquid are often used interchangeably to designate liquids that are at the same time highly viscous (see Viscosity of amorphous materials), can be or are supercooled, and able to form a glass.
The reverse transition, achieved by supercooling a viscous liquid into the glass state, is called vitrification. The glass-transition temperature T g of a material characterizes the range of temperatures over which this glass transition occurs (as an experimental definition, typically marked as 100 s of relaxation time).
In many cases, liquids and solutions can be cooled down or concentrated up to conditions where the liquid or solution is significantly less thermodynamically stable than the crystal, but where no crystals will form for minutes, hours, weeks or longer; this process is called supercooling. Nucleation of the crystal is then being prevented by a ...
Superheating can occur when an undisturbed container of water is heated in a microwave oven.At the time the container is removed, the lack of nucleation sites prevents boiling, leaving the surface calm.
Cooling Agent Organic Solvent or Inorganic Salt T (°C) Notes Dry ice: p-Xylene +13 [1]Dry ice: p-Dioxane +12 Dry ice: Cyclohexane +6 Dry ice: Benzene +5 Dry ice
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However, under carefully created conditions, supercooling, or superheating past the melting or freezing point can occur. Water on a very clean glass surface will often supercool several degrees below the freezing point without freezing. Fine emulsions of pure water have been cooled to −38 °C without nucleation to form ice.