Year: 2005
Type: preprint
Abstract: The high temperature surface properties of alkali halide crystals are very unusual. Through molecular dynamics simulations based on Tosi-Fumi potentials, we predict that crystalline NaCl(100) should remain stable without any precursor signals of melting up to and even above the bulk melting point $T_m$. In a metastable state, it should even be possible to overheat NaCl (100) by at least 50 K. The reasons leading to this lack of surface self-wetting are investigated. We will briefly discuss the results of calculations of the solid-vapor and liquid-vapor interface free energies, showing that the former is unusually low and the latter unusually high, and explaining why. Due to that the mutual interaction among solid-liquid and liquid-vapor interfaces, otherwise unknown, must be strongly attractive at short distance, leading to the collapse of any liquid film attempting to nucleate at the solid surface. This scenario naturally explains the large incomplete wetting angle of a drop of melt on NaCl(100).
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1572552116