Law-breaking liquid defies the rules

Physicists in France have discovered a liquid that "freezes" when it is heated. Marie Plazanet and colleagues at the Universit� Joseph Fourier and the Institut Laue-Langevin, both in Grenoble, found that a simple solution composed of two organic compounds becomes a solid when it is heated to temperatures between 45 and 75�C, and becomes a liquid when cooled again. The team says that hydrogen bonds are responsible for this novel behaviour (M Plazanet et al. 2004 J. Chem. Phys 121 5031). Read more...

I find it interesting when science finds things that go back-asswards.
How would findings such as this be of any importance to everyday life?Are scientists like this just big kids messing with their science kits they got for christmas and just seem to stumble on findings like this?Why would you try to do something like this unless it has purpose?

Science is always cool

I would imagine that we would be without alot of our current creature comforts if scentist didn't tinker around with things that lacked purpose every now and then. You just never know what you will end up stumbling on.

Wow. That's funky. I have nothing more to add than....

haha, well i think that's pretty cool, i cant think of any other substance that breaks the rules like that. Indeed it could proove to be a very useful material, not that i can think of any uses right now but im sure there are.

I wonder if it could help in areas such as those who explore volcanoes and other 'hot spots'
Maybe some way of 'coating' a space shuttle so heat is not such an issue when re-entering earths atmosphere.
We should get Bill Nye The Science Guy in here

[edit on 15-10-2004 by SMR]

Bill Nye is great, but I was always partial to Julius Sumner Miller...I loved his show back junior high.




"Why is it so?"

That doesn't prove it breaks the rules.

What happens when heat is removed from the system?
What happens when heat is added to the system past 75�C?

I would be willing to bet that the the compound between 40-75�C is as solid as glass. Which isn't a solid.

Professor Wonderful! Yeah, he's great - I got to meet him in high school long ago when he came to give a presentation. Cool guy.

Practical uses of this material ... the article didn't say anything about energy storage, but that's an area I'd look at. Going up in temp, at 45C (113F) it turns into a solid. That releases heat energy - with most chemicals anyway; maybe it's the opposite with this weird stuff, but that just means you need to go in the other direction.

So you can use the state change here to store & release energy. If it's cheap, and non-toxic, you could use it for passive and heating on your house. (Ever see the baby bottle warmers that are a liquid, but you click a metal tab in the corner and they turn into a solid, getting hot enough to warm a baby bottle? That's what I'm talking about.)

I wonder if it could help in areas such as those who explore volcanoes and other 'hot spots'
Maybe some way of 'coating' a space shuttle so heat is not such an issue when re-entering earths atmosphere.
We should get Bill Nye The Science Guy in here

This was the first thing that popped into my head hehe. Except I was thinking body armor not coating for a space shuttle. Did they mention what the effects were when they increased the tempature above 75?

maybe it could be used for gun bullets,were it goes along barrel it would heat up??

Depending on cost and safety it may be an alternative to de-icing roads and to extinguish fires of all sorts.

wow, thats awesome. Did it say anything about once it goes higher than those temps? 75c..
cuz if it stays hard at higher temps and stuff, then that might could be used on spaceships so when they come back into orbit the materials wont melt from all the heat friction or w/e. it will simply get harder/stay hard, and shouldnt catch fire...did it say anything about flammability?

Originally posted by natew100
wow, thats awesome. Did it say anything about once it goes higher than those temps? 75c..
cuz if it stays hard at higher temps and stuff, then that might could be used on spaceships so when they come back into orbit the materials wont melt from all the heat friction or w/e. it will simply get harder/stay hard, and shouldnt catch fire...did it say anything about flammability?

I guess you skipped through the thread or you would have noticed that Lucid Lunacy has already suggested that use so Lucid Lunacy
has the IPR claim when it is released.

awww damn yeah i skipped thru the thread somewhat, i thought i read the other posts to c if someone sed that....but o well, my mind was at work

COOL...... Ok, so what are the two organic compounds in this formula, and can i get them from my local chemist or would i have to special order them?