Low-temperature properties of glassy and crystalline states of n-butanol

Abstract

We present low-temperature measurements of the specific heat and the thermal conductivity for the three solid phases of n-butanol, namely glass, crystal and “glacial” phases.Whereas crystal and glass ones are found to exhibit the expected thermal behavior for crystalline and non-crystalline solids, respectively (i.e. Debye theory for crystals, and universal low-temperature properties with a boson peak and a concomitant plateau in the thermal conductivity for glasses), the so-called “glacial phase” behaves as a very defective crystal, confirming earlierwork that identifies it as a mixed phase of nanocrystallites and a disordered matrix. We have also measured longitudinal and transverse sound velocities at lowtemperatures for the glass phase. The elastic Debye coefficient and Debye temperature of the glass determined fromthese measurements are found to agree verywellwith the calorimetric ones obtained from a SPM analysis of the specific heat. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.