Structural changes across thermodynamic maxima in supercooled liquid tellurium: A water-like scenario.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 35867742.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1073/pnas.2202044119 and PMC identifier 9282392.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
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Abstract
Liquid polymorphism is an intriguing phenomenon that has been found in a few single-component systems, the most famous being water. By supercooling liquid Te to more than 130 K below its melting point and performing simultaneous small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering measurements, we observe clear maxima in its thermodynamic response functions around 615 K, suggesting the possible existence of liquid polymorphism. A close look at the underlying structural evolution shows the development of intermediate-range order upon cooling, most strongly around the thermodynamic maxima, which we attribute to bond-orientational ordering. The striking similarities between our results and those of water, despite the lack of hydrogen-bonding and tetrahedrality in Te, indicate that water-like anomalies may be a general phenomenon among liquid systems with competing bond- and density-ordering.