Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Zhang R
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7969604 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Zhang Ruibin R Fall William S WS Hall Kyle Wm KW Gehring Gillian A GA Zeng Xiangbing X Ungar Goran G
Nature communications 20210317 1
Condensed matter textbooks teach us that melting cannot be continuous and indeed experience, including with polymers and other long-chain compounds, tells us that it is a strongly first-order transition. However, here we report nearly continuous melting of monolayers of ultralong n-alkane C<sub>390</sub>H<sub>782</sub> on graphite, observed by AFM and reproduced by mean-field theory and MD simulation. On heating, the crystal-melt interface moves steadily and reversibly from chain ends inward. Re ...[more]