Can matter undergo phase transitions?
1 Answer
Jul 18, 2017
...If it is matter, then I hope so. If it is matter, it should be describable by a phase diagram (at least, in principle).
Benzene is a fine example:
- If we start at
#"280 K"# and#"30 torr"# , and increase the pressure at constant temperature past roughly#"40 torr"# ...
...We condense the gas into a liquid. (If we reverse the process we just did, we vaporize the liquid into a gas.)
- If we start at
#"273 K"# and#"10 torr"# , and increase the pressure at constant temperature, we move vertically upwards in the phase diagram.
We consequently transform the gas into a solid, i.e. deposition, past roughly
#"30 torr"# . (If we reverse the process, we perform sublimation.)
- And if we look closely, the solid-liquid coexistence curve has a negative slope (is not perfectly vertical).
So if we start at roughly
#"280 K"# and#"40 torr"# (to the left of the triple point) and increase the pressure at constant temperature, past roughly#"50 torr"# we would melt the solid into a liquid. (The reverse process would be freezing the liquid.)