Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Order-Disorder and Phase Separation

Published

Author(s)

Benjamin P. Burton

Abstract

Order-disorder and phase separation in condensed solutions of two or more components are similar processes that are typically driven by energetics of opposite sign. The components may be: different atomic species in alloys or solid solutions; atoms and vacancies in a lattice gas (1)); adsorbed atoms and vacant adsorption sites on a crystal surface; different molecules in a polymer blend(2) or liquid crystal; magnetic moments in a ferro-, ferri-, or antiferro-magnet; electric dipoles in a ferroelectric crystal. At sufficiently high temperatures; all condensed solutions disorder, unless they melt (solids) or vaporize (solids or liquids) first, because the disordered state has greater configurational entropy, and therefore lower Gibbs energy at high temperatures.
Citation
Materials Science & Materials Engineering, Edited by Saleem Hashmi

Keywords

order-disorder, phase separation

Citation

Burton, B. (2015), Order-Disorder and Phase Separation, Materials Science & Materials Engineering, Edited by Saleem Hashmi (Accessed April 25, 2024)
Created October 28, 2015, Updated March 21, 2017