jp075188o_si_001.doc (173.5 kB)
Raman Spectroscopic Investigations of Pressure-Induced Phase Transitions in n-Hexane
journal contribution
posted on 2007-12-27, 00:00 authored by G. Kavitha, Chandrabhas NarayanaWe report high-pressure Raman studies on n-hexane up to 16 GPa. n-Hexane undergoes solid−solid transition
around 9.1 GPa along with an already reported liquid−solid transition around 1.4 GPa. The intensity ratio of
the Raman modes relating the all-trans conformation (1147 and 2872 cm-1) to that of the gauche conformation
(1074 and 2923 cm-1) shows a sudden change across 9.1 GPa, suggesting an increase in the all-trans population
conformers above 9.1 GPa. The disappearance of the torsional modes suggests a steric hindrance to the methyl
end group, similar to the n-heptane case, suggesting that the high-pressure phase (above 9.1 GPa) is an
orientationally disordered phase. In general, the transition pressure for the solid−solid transition is inversely
proportional to the length of the carbon backbone in the medium chain length n-alkanes.