Shift of the Critical Mixing Temperature in Strong Electric Fields. Theory and Experiment

Kazimierz Orzechowski, Mariusz Adamczyk, Alicja Wolny, Yoav Tsori

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study the shift in the critical temperature Tc in binary mixtures in strong electric fields. In experiments we measure the nonlinear dielectric effect (NDE) in a mixture of nitrobenze and n-octane and calculate Piekaras factor. We find that the critical anomaly of Piekaras factor is a function of an electric field strength. We propose to explain this observation as a result of a downward shift of Tc, and this allows us to calculate (εTc/εE2) = (-22 ± 10) × 10-16 (K m2)/V2. In the theoretical part we amend Landau and Lifshitzs formula and show that the downward shift of T c can be estimated from a simple mean-field theory taking into account the linear and quadratic terms in an expansion of the constitutive relation μ(x) between the electric constant μ and mixture composition x.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7187-7194
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry B
Volume118
Issue number25
DOIs
StatePublished - 26 Jun 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Surfaces, Coatings and Films
  • Materials Chemistry

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