Orientational melting and reorientational motion in a cubane molecular crystal: A molecular simulation study

Murugan, Arul N (2005) Orientational melting and reorientational motion in a cubane molecular crystal: A molecular simulation study. In: Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 109 (50). pp. 23955-23962.

PDF orientation.pdf - Published Version Restricted to Registered users only Download (252kB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Detailed molecular simulations are carried out to investigate the effect of temperature on orientational order in cubane molecular crystal. We report a transition from an orientationally ordered to an orientationally disordered plastic crystalline phase in the temperature range 425-450 K. This is similar to the experimentally reported transition at 395 K. The nature of this transition is first order and is associated with a 4.8% increase in unit Cell volume that is comparable to the experimentally reported unit cell volume change of 5.4% (Phys. Rev. Lett. 1997, 78, 4938). An orientational order parameter, eta(T), has been defined in terms of average angle of libration of a molecular 3-fold axis and the orientational melting has been characterized by using eta(T). The orientational melting is associated with an anomaly in specific heat at constant pressure (C-p) and compressibility (kappa). The enthalpy of transition and entropy of transition associated with this orientational melting are 20.8 J mol(-1) and 0.046 J mol(-1) K-1, respectively. The structure of crystalline as well as plastic crystalline phases is characterized by using various radial distribution functions and orientational distribution functions. The coefficient of thermal expansion of the plastic crystalline phase is more than twice that of the crystalline phase.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Physical Chemistry B
Publisher:	American Chemical Society
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to American Chemical Society.
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit
Date Deposited:	05 May 2010 11:28
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 06:01
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/27559

Actions (login required)

View Item