Solid-amorphous transition is related to the waterlike anomalies in a fluid without liquid-liquid phase transition

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics to explore how waterlike anomalies in a fluid without liquid-liquid phase transition relate to solid-amorphous transitions, revealing the role of competing structures and amorphous cluster formation.

Contribution

It demonstrates the connection between waterlike anomalies and solid-amorphous transitions in a model without LLPT, highlighting the role of structural competition.

Findings

Amorphous clusters form in BCC crystals at low temperatures.

Fluid transitions from BCC-like to amorphous-like structures near maxima in $k_T$.

Waterlike anomalies can occur without liquid-liquid phase transition.

Abstract

The most accepted origin for the water anomalous behavior is the phase transition between two liquids (LLPT) in the supercooled regime connected to the glassy first order phase transition at lower temperatures. Two length scales potentials are an effective approach that have long being employed to understand the properties of fluids with waterlike anomalies and, more recently, the behavior of colloids and nanoparticles. These potentials can be parameterized to have distinct shapes, as a pure repulsive ramp, such as the model proposed by de Oliveira et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 124, 64901 (2006)]. This model has waterlike anomalies despite the absence of LLPT. To unravel how the waterlike anomalies are connected to the solid phases we employ Molecular Dynamics simulations. We have analyzed the fluid-solid transition under cooling, with two solid crystalline phases, BCC and HCP, and two amorphous regions being observed. We show how the competition between the scales creates an amorphous cluster in the BCC crystal that leads to the amorphization at low temperatures. A similar mechanism is found in the fluid phase, with the system changing from a BCC-like to an amorphous-like structure in the point where a maxima in $k_T$ is observed. With this, we can relate the competition between two fluid structures with the amorphous clusterization in the BCC phase.Those findings help to understand the origins of waterlike behavior in systems without liquid-liquid critical point.