A Liquid That Turns Solid When Heated

Roland Piquepaille writes "There are some sure things in life, such as death and taxes. When you are heating a solid, you expect it will melt and when you're boiling water, you're pretty certain that it will turn into vapor. But what about a liquid that becomes solid when it's heated? Of course, it has already been done, for example in the chemical process of polymerization. But now, PhysicsWeb writes that a team of French physicists has discovered a law-breaking liquid that defies the rules. When you heat it between 45 and 75C, it becomes solid. But the process is fully reversible, and this is a world's premiere. When you decrease the temperature, this solid melts and turns again into a liquid. I'm not sure of the implications of such a phenomenon, but it's fascinating. Read more for essential details."

Comments

Missing some info here

[Hockney Twang]

It's a solid at those temperatures, what is it at higher temps? Liquid again? Does it have two melting points? At what temp does it vaporize? Does it freeze at some point below the normal low-end melting point? At 0 degrees Kelvin, it's definitely a solid, somewhere above that, a liquid, then a solid again, then a liquid again, then a vapor? Maybe.

Re:Missing some info here

[DavidTC]

At 0 degrees Kelvin, it's not anything. It's just, in theory, a bunch of suspended frozen stuff that's exactly where it was before you hit 0. It has no chemical properties, because there is no way to do any sort of chemical interaction with it.

That's in theory, of couse, since you can't hit 0 degrees Kelvin.

But assuming you mean 'near 0 Kelvin', like d00ket pointed out, things get really weird down there. Some substances don't appear to have freezing points, there is no state below 'liquid'...they just move slower and slower. And some freeze quite normally, then do another transition way down there where they move back to a liquid like substance.

The substance in the article is interesting, but not completely amazing. Various 'states of matter' are just rules of thumb.

Useful material to have when printing out organs

[Billy the Mountain]

This article describes a similar material that is liquid below 20 C and solid above 32 C. Medical researchers hope to use it if they are able to perfect 3D printers that generate organs by spraying cells onto a substrate. The gel is used to reserve open spaces for blood vessels. Once the organ has been formed they cool it and the solid turns to liquid and runs out.

BTM