Metastable regions

The limiting compression (or maximum v value) is, theoretically, the one that places the film in equilibrium with the bulk material. Compression beyond this point should force film material into patches of bulk solid or liquid, but in practice one may sometimes compress past this point. Thus in the case of stearic acid, with slow compression collapse occurred at about 15 dyn/cm [81] that is, film material began to go over to a three-dimensional state. With faster rates of compression, the v-a isotherm could be followed up to 50 dyn/cm, or well into a metastable region. The mechanism of collapse may involve folding of the film into a bilayer (note Fig. IV-18). 

Figure A3.3.2 A schematic phase diagram for a typical binary mixture showmg stable, unstable and metastable regions according to a van der Waals mean field description. The coexistence curve (outer curve) and the spinodal curve (iimer curve) meet at the (upper) critical pomt. A critical quench corresponds to a sudden decrease in temperature along a constant order parameter (concentration) path passing through the critical point. Other constant order parameter paths ending within tire coexistence curve are called off-critical quenches.

For initial post-quench states in the metastable region between the classical spinodal and coexistence curves,... 

It is, however, possible to calculate the tensile strength of a liquid by extrapolation of an equation of state for the fluid into the metastable region of negative pressure. Burgess and Everett in their comprehensive test of the tensile strength hypothesis, plot the theoretical curves of T /T against zjp, calculated from the equations of state of van der Waals, Guggenheim, and Berthelot (Fig. 3.24) (7], and are the critical temperature and critical... 

Sihcate solutions of equivalent composition may exhibit different physical properties and chemical reactivities because of differences in the distributions of polymer sihcate species. This effect is keenly observed in commercial alkah sihcate solutions with compositions that he in the metastable region near the solubihty limit of amorphous sihca. Experimental studies have shown that the precipitation boundaries of sodium sihcate solutions expand as a function of time, depending on the concentration of metal salts (29,58). Apparently, the high viscosity of concentrated alkah sihcate solutions contributes to the slow approach to equihbrium. 

Some guidelines have been provided for defining the metastable region. If the seed crystals dissolve when added to the metastable solution, this implies that saturation conditions have not been reached. If the addition of the seed leads to the formation of an oil dispersion, it may be concluded that supersaturation has been realized (Anderson, 2000). 

Fig. 4.8 The Frumkin adsorption isotherm. The value of the interaction coefficient a is indicated at each curve. The transition in the metastable region is indicated by a dashed...

The decomposition of a solution with composition outside the spinodal region but within the metastable region can be analyzed in a similar way. Let us assume that a sample with composition in this region is cooled to low temperatures. Small fluctuations in composition now initially lead to an increase in the Gibbs energy and the separation of the original homogeneous solution must occur by nucleation of a new phase. The formation of this phase is thermally activated. Two solutions with different composition appear, but in this case the composition of the nucleated phase is well defined at all times and only the relative amount of the two phases varies with time. 

If hexane is used as the low molecular weight liquid, the desired phase separation is observed when precursor mixtures containing 6-15 wt % hexane are cured isothermally at 40 °C. Further discussion of the phase separation behavior requires more detailed consideration of the schematic phase diagram, as presented in Fig. 17, which resembles the real phase diagram shown in Fig. 13. Experimentally it is found, that no phase separation occurs with hexane concentrations equal to or lower than 5 wt %. Hence the critical amount for phase separation, (j)p, is given by the intercept of the binodal line and the imaginary value of Hence no phase separation occurs if is reached before the metastable region is entered. 

Based on Eqs. (42) and (43), the development of a narrow or bimodal size distribution can be qualitatively explained without the detailed knowledge of the real phase diagram nor the exact dependency of the diffusion constant as a function of time. The final morphology depends mainly on the extent of reaction at which the metastable region is entered and the difference between ( )p and ( )o, as discussed below. 

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