Laboratory of Phase Transition Kinetics is currently equipped with two recently developed apparatuses for investigation of thermophysical properties of supercooled liquids, especially water, seawater, and aqueous binaries.

The Density Apparatus allows measurement of the liquid density at a constant pressure, i.e. expansivity measurement, or at a constant temperature, i.e. isothermal compressibility measurement, at pressures up to 200 MPa and temperatures down to -40°C.

Fig. 1 Capillary tubes inside the pressure vessel of the Density Apparatus

The Surface Tension Apparatus operating at ambient pressure allows measurement of surface tension both at the equilibrium temperatures and under the metastable supercooled states down to -30°C.

Fig. 2 Capillary tube within a glass chamber of the Surface Tension Apparatus

Other Important Equipment

• Low-temperature control unit consisting of two thermostatic baths Lauda Proline RP 855 and RP 890C reaching temperatures down to -70°C (http://www.lauda.de)
• Reverse osmosis unit Rowapur for pure water preparation (http://www.watrex.cz)
• Neptune Analytical producing ultra-pure water of 18.2 MΩ.cm and TOC < 5 ppb (http://www.purite.com)
• Digital thermometer ASL F500 with accuracy ±0.005°C (http://www.aslltd.co.uk )
• Height gauge Mitutoyo HD-A Digimatic 600 mm with cathetometer Titan TC-II (http://www.mitutoyo.cz, http://www.titantoolsupply.com)
• High-resolution monochrome digital camera Basler pilot piA2400-12gm (http://www.baslerweb.com)
• Data acquisition units Agilent 34970A with extension cards (http://www.agilent.com)
• Two devices operated in collaboration with the Laboratory of Thermophysical Properties of Fluids Laboratory of Thermophysical Properties of Fluids.
  • Vibrating-tube density meter Anton Paar DMA 5000 M with the external high pressure cell DMA HP achieving accuracy up to ±0.0001 g/cm3 and operating at temperatures between –10 and +200°C and pressures up to 70 MPa (http://www.anton-paar.com)
  • In-house calibrated tensiometer Krüss K100 Mk2 (http://www.kruss.de)