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It is a remarkable fact that phase transitions arising in different systems often possess the same set of critical exponents. This phenomenon is known as universality. For example, the critical exponents at the liquid–gas critical point have been found to be independent of the chemical composition of the fluid.
This is analogous to polymorphism of crystalline materials, where different stable crystalline states (solid 1, 2 in diagram) of the same substance can exist (e.g. diamond and graphite are two polymorphs of carbon). Like the ordinary liquid–gas transition, the liquid–liquid transition is expected to end in a liquid-liquid critical point. At ...
Liquid crystal color transitions are used on many aquarium and pool thermometers as well as on thermometers for infants or baths. [84] Other liquid crystal materials change color when stretched or stressed. Thus, liquid crystal sheets are often used in industry to look for hot spots, map heat flow, measure stress distribution patterns, and so on.
Phase transitions (phase changes) that help describe polymorphism include polymorphic transitions as well as melting and vaporization transitions. According to IUPAC, a polymorphic transition is "A reversible transition of a solid crystalline phase at a certain temperature and pressure (the inversion point) to another phase of the same chemical composition with a different crystal structure."
Glass is a non-crystalline or amorphous solid material that exhibits a glass transition when heated towards the liquid state. Glasses can be made of quite different classes of materials: inorganic networks (such as window glass, made of silicate plus additives), metallic alloys, ionic melts, aqueous solutions, molecular liquids, and polymers.
Lambda transition; Landau theory; Landau–de Gennes theory; Latent internal energy; Lee–Yang theory; Lever rule; Lippmann diagram; Liquid crystal; Liquid–liquid critical point; Liquidus and solidus
The term liquid crystal persists as a colloquialism, but use of the term was criticized in 1993: In The Physics of Liquid Crystals [4] the mesophases are introduced from the beginning: ...certain organic materials do not show a single transition from solid to liquid, but rather a cascade of transitions involving new phases.
A new ground state may become favorable and a transition between the states is a phase transition. [4]: 9 A phase transition can be related to a difference in symmetry between the two states. For example liquid is isotropic but solid water, ice, has directions with different properties. The two states have different energy: ice has less energy ...