Inelastic neutron scattering study on the polytypism of even-numbered n-alkanes

The thermodynamic properties of the two polytypes of n-hexatriacontane (n-C36H74), single-layered structure Mon and double-layered structure Orth II, have been studied with incoherent inelastic neutron scattering and solubility measurements. The solubility measurements show that Orth II is more stable than Mon, because of its larger entropy. The neutron scattering measurements reveal that the vibrational modes of Orth II shift to the lower frequencies compared with those of Mon in the frequency region below 120 cm(-1): The vibrational modes in this region make a dominant contribution to the vibrational entropy of a system, and the advantage of Orth II in vibrational entropy due to the low-frequency shifts is estimated to be 7.8 JK (1) mol(-1) at 288 K under the harmonic approximation, which is in good agreement with the entropy difference between Mon and Orth II determined by solubility measurements. These results suggest that the relative stability of polytypic structures of long-chain compounds is mainly determined by the vibrational entropy of the low-frequency modes. (C) 2004 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.