spinodaladj.n.
/spʌɪˈnəʊdəl/ Physical Chemistry.
A. adj.
Being or pertaining to a spinodal; involving a metastable condition described by such a curve.
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spinodal1956
1956 Nature 3 Mar. 419/2 A single kinetic law did not apply at all temperatures, which suggests that the spinodal curve may have some influence.
1961 Acta Metallurgica IX. 801/2 Au-Ni thin foils decompose by what is almost certainly a spinodal mechanism.
1973 Physics Bull. Apr. 230 Spinodal decomposition of equimolar NaCl-KCl mixed crystals.
B. n.
A curve which is the locus of stationary points in a system of curves; spec. such a curve in a pressure-volume diagram or the like which delimits a region of thermodynamic metastability from one of instability.
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spinodal1961
1961 Acta Metallurgica IX. 536/2 The spinodal is the locus of points within a miscibility gap where δ2F/δx2 = 0. F is the free energy of mixing and x the composition.
1969 Trans. Metallurg. Soc. AIME 245 1707 Just above and just below the spinodal, we expect the reaction to proceed along a path which is not necessarily the energetically most favorable one.
1974 Nature 29 Nov. 381/2 The locus of all the tangent points c defines a metastability limit (spinodal).
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
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adj.n.1956