Date of Award

6-2012

Document Type

Union College Only

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Physics and Astronomy

First Advisor

Samuel Amanuel

Language

English

Keywords

silica, particle sixe, radius, trials, melting temperature

Abstract

We probed the phase transitions of 1-decanol (C10H21OH) confined in silica (SiO2) of various pore sizes though the use of a Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). The silica used was of particle size 75-200 µm and included five different pore sizes ranging from 3.5 to 50 nm. From this data, we calculated the suppression in the onset of these phase transitions as well as the heat of fusion, ΔH, for each of the trials. In accordance with previous studies in this area, the melting temperature was observed to be inversely proportional to the size of the pore’s radius. This suppression in phase transition is characterized by the Gibbs-Thomson equation, which tacitly assumes that ΔH remains invariant with physical confinement. We, however, observed a change in the heat of fusion approaching 90% of the bulk heat of fusion.

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