Heat transfer in different phases of solid cyclohexene

The thermal conductivity of solid cyclohexene C6H10 has been measured in two independent experiments in five different stable and metastable phase states: orientational glass (Ig), orientational glass (IIIg) with a partial order, dynamically orientationally disordered state (III) with a partial order, completely orientationally ordered phase (II) and “plastic” phase (I). The measurements were carried out at saturated vapor pressure in the temperature range 2-120 K and at isochoric conditions in “plastic” and orientationally ordered phases on samples of different densities. The isochoric thermal conductivity of “plastic” phase increases smoothly with temperature. It can be attributed to weakening of the translational orientational coupling which, in turn, leads to a decrease in phonon scattering on rotational excitations. The thermal conductivity of cyclohexene measured at saturated vapor pressure exhibits a similar behavior in phases Ig, IIIg, and II. At low temperatures (T<8 K) the thermal conductivity tends to T2 dependence, passes through a maximum and decreases further with increasing temperature following the dependence, which is somewhat different from 1/T. It was found that the thermal conductivity can be represented as a sum of two contributions κ(T)=κ1(T)+κ2(T), where κ1(T) is due to propagating phonons whose mean-free path exceeds half the phonon wavelength, and κ2(T) is attributed to localized short-wavelength or “diffusive” vibrational modes.