Drastic enhancement of crystal nucleation in a molecular liquid by its liquid–liquid transition

Abstract

Crystallization is one of the most familiar and fundamental phase transition phenomena. There is a possibility that crystallization may be enhanced by critical-like fluctuations associated with another nearby phase transition if the order parameter of the former is coupled to that of the latter; however, the mechanism of such order parameter coupling and its generality remain elusive due to the lack of experimental studies. Here we report experimental evidence for a nontrivial coupling between crystallization and liquid–liquid transition (LLT) for a molecular liquid, triphenyl phosphite. We find that the crystal nucleation frequency is drastically enhanced by short-time preannealing near but above the spinodal temperature of LLT. By successfully separating the thermodynamic and kinetic factors governing crystal nucleation, we show that this enhancement is induced by the lowering of the crystal–liquid interfacial energy due to the presence of critical-like order parameter fluctuations. This finding may be regarded as a fingerprint of the presence of LLT below the melting point. Thus, it may allow us not only to control the crystal nucleation frequency by LLT but also to unveil LLT hidden behind crystallization. This enhancement of nucleation frequency by critical-like fluctuations of another ordering phenomenon may be general to a variety of combinations of phase transitions. It would provide a way to control a crystal grain structure, which is a crucial control factor of mechanical and thermal properties of crystalline materials.