2004/01/19 by Patrick Huber, P Huber, Dirk Wallacher +5 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Physical and Chemical Molecular Interactions #Material Dynamics and Properties #Mesoporous Materials and Catalysis #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/epl/i2003-10088-0
published as Europhysics Letters 65 (3), pp. 351-357 (2004) · 7 pages, 3 figures
openalex publication_date 2004/01/19 · arxiv created 2004/02/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We present an X-ray diffraction study of the normal alkane nonadecane C 19 H 40 embedded in nanoporous Vycor glass. The confined molecular crystal accomplishes a close-packed structure by alignment of the rod-like molecules parallel to the pore axis while sacrificing one basic ordering principle known from the bulk state, i.e. the lamellar ordering of the molecules. Despite this disorder, the phase transitions observed in the confined solid mimic the phase behavior of the 3D unconfined crystal, though enriched by the appearance of a true rotator phase known only from longer alkane chains.