Chill oil droplets bend and flash

1,220 views · Published 26 January 2016 · 0:22 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: Science News · 2016 · Science & Technology

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Scientists can turn oil droplets into an array of crystalline shapes by manipulating the chemistry and temperature of the droplets’ surroundings. In the video above, the droplets are hexadecane, a chain of 16 carbon and 34 hydrogen atoms. At the moment that the droplets fully freeze, newly formed plastic crystals flash colorfully under polarized light. Read more: http://ow.ly/Xydpe 

Video credit: N. Denkov et al/Cambridge University

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