A thermophysical study of the melting process in alkyl chain metal n-alkanoates: The thallium (I) series

The peculiar thermal behavior of the thallium(I) n-alkanoates series (consisting in several transitions between polymorphic and mesomorphic phases) in comparison with other metallic n-alkanoates series is stated. The allowance of highly accurate adiabatic heat capacity data permits a study of the CH2CH2 contributions to the lattice heat capacity curve at low temperature. Moreover, in this series an anomalous gradual enhancement of the lattice heat capacity has been interpreted from vibrational spectroscopy results as a noncooperative effect due to the internal hindered rotation of the alkyl chain (formation of gauche defects, even in the solid state). The thermodynamics of the “stepwise melting process” from the totally ordered solid at low temperature to the isotropic liquid is based on a revised lattice heat-capacity curve. This was used to evaluate the energy and entropy not only of the clear first order transitions present in the series but also of the described noncooperative effect. The CH2CH2 enthalpy and entropy contribution for this series is estimated and a comparison with the published values for other series is carried out. Moreover, the texture of the mesophases is revealed by polarized light microscopy. © 1999 American Institute of Physics