Thermosonimetry of the phase II/III transition of hexachloroethane

A thermosonimetric study has shown that the Phase II/III polymorphic transition of hexachloroethane emits acoustic signals. This solid-solid phase transition is known to occur by a nucleation-growth process during which a nucleus of the new phase, once formed, grows at the expense of the mother phase to form a complete crystal without fracture. Acoustic emissions from a conditioned multi-crystal sample have been used to study the transition. Acoustic activity correlated well with dilatometric measurements. Frequency analysis on waveforms of many hundreds of individual acoustic emissions revealed marked differences between individual signals. Principal-components analysis on 24 signal features revealed a single dispersed cluster with a highly non-uniform distribution of signals. These experiments provided highly reproducible average power spectra. Time-resolved acoustic power spectra were also generated. These additional types of information cannot be obtained by other techniques.