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Phase transitions

Jumping between liquid states

Nature volume 403, pages 151–152 (2000)Cite this article

Crystalline solids can exist in different forms — polymorphs — with different structures and bonding patterns. Such polymorphs are usually stable under different conditions. For example, carbon occurs naturally as two different polymorphs, graphite and diamond, which are stable at different pressures and temperatures. The transformation between graphite and diamond is classified thermodynamically as a first-order phase transition, in that the structure and energy change abruptly at the transition. First-order phase transitions in non-crystalline materials — for example, the abrupt condensation of a gas to a liquid — are also well known.

The existence of liquid (rather than solid) polymorphs is only just beginning to be recognized. For a long time, the idea of a first-order transition between two liquids was not considered seriously, because of the view that liquids have rapidly changing structures that vary smoothly with temperature and pressure. Growing evidence for first-order transitions in liquids has come from analysis of their physical properties and from computer simulations1,2. On page 170 of this issue, Katayama et al.3 describe a direct structural study of liquid phosphorus under high pressure, using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Simply by increasing the pressure, the structure of liquid phosphorus jumps suddenly from a relatively open molecular structure to a new polymeric form with higher density.

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  1. the Center for Solid State Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287-1604 , Arizona, USA

    Paul McMillan

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Correspondence to Paul McMillan.

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McMillan, P. Jumping between liquid states. Nature 403, 151–152 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35003088

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