Gruener, SimonSimonGruenerHuber, PatrickPatrickHuber2022-06-072022-06-072009-10-20Physical Review Letters 103 (17): 174501 (2009-10-22)http://hdl.handle.net/11420/12820Capillary filling dynamics of liquid n-tetracosane (n-C24H50) in a network of cylindrical pores with 7 and 10 nm mean diameter in monolithic silica glass (Vycor) exhibit an abrupt temperature-slope change at Ts=54 deg C, ~4 deg C above bulk and ~16 deg C, 8 deg C, respectively, above pore freezing. It can be traced to a sudden inversion of the surface tension's T slope, and thus to a decrease in surface entropy at the advancing pore menisci, characteristic of the formation of a single solid monolayer of rectified molecules, known as surface freezing from macroscopic, quiescent tetracosane melts. The imbibition speeds, that are the squared prefactors of the observed square-root-of-time Lucas-Washburn invasion kinetics, indicate a conserved bulk fluidity and capillarity of the nanopore-confined liquid, if we assume a flat lying, sticky hydrocarbon backbone monolayer at the silica walls.en1079-7114200917American Physical SocietyPhysics - Fluid DynamicsPhysics - Fluid DynamicsPhysics - Mesoscopic Systems and Quantum Hall EffectPhysics - Soft Condensed MatterPhysics - Chemical PhysicsPhysikJournal Article10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.1745010910.4324v1Other