Experimental Evidence for Crossover to Mean-Field Tricritical Behavior in a Concentrated Salt Solution

Abstract

We have discovered a mean-field multicritical point on the critical locus in an aqueous solution of 3-methylpyridine and sodium bromide. Light-scattering measurements indicate Ising-like asymptotic critical behavior at the lower salt concentrations. However, the temperature range of Ising critical behavior shrinks with increasing salt concentration and the critical behavior becomes mean-field-like at a concentration of about 17% mass fraction of NaBr. Emergence of a new characteristic length scale diverging at this point and a simultaneous pronounced increase in the background scattering suggests mean-field tricritical behavior associated with the formation of a microheterogeneous phase due to clustering of ions and molecules.