Phase Transitions of Bulk 1-Decanol

We investigated the phase transitions of bulk 1-decanol (C10H21OH) using a Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). Bulk 1-decanol crystallizes at 2.3℃ and melts at 5.19℃. Prior to melting, 1-decanol goes under phase transition to a rotator phase which reveals as a shoulder peak during melting. However, it is absent during crystallization. Through a series of partial melting and recrystallization experiments, we were able to demonstrate evidence of the rotator phase during cooling. We calculated the onset temperature and the heat of fusion, ΔH, of the subsequent melting and we did not observe any significant change in the transition temperature or ΔH. These suggest that the melting behavior as determined by DSC was independent of the crystallization history.