Melting/freezing are canonical examples of discontinuous phase transitions, for which no pretransitional effects in the liquid phase are expected. For the solid phase, weak premelting effects are evidenced. This report shows long-range, critical-like, pretransitional effects in liquid thymol detected in electrooptic Kerr effect (EKE) studies. Notably is the negative sign of EKE pretransitional anomaly. Studies are supplemented by the high-resolution dielectric constant temperature-related scan, which revealed a weak premelting effect in the solid phase. Both EKE and dielectric constant show a ‘crossover’ change in the liquid phase, ca, 10 K above the freezing temperature. It can be recognized as the hallmark of the challenging liquid–liquid transition phenomenon.

Graphical abstract

中文翻译：

---

液体百里酚中电光克尔效应行为的预转变

熔化/冻结是不连续相变的典型例子，在液相中没有预过渡效应。对于固相，证明了较弱的预熔效应。本报告显示了在电光克尔效应 (EKE) 研究中检测到的液体百里酚中的长程、类似临界、过渡前效应。值得注意的是 EKE 过渡前异常的负号。高分辨率介电常数温度相关扫描对研究进行了补充，该扫描揭示了固相中的弱预熔效应。EKE 和介电常数都显示出液相中的“交叉”变化，大约高于冷冻温度 10 K。它可以被认为是具有挑战性的液-液转变现象的标志。

图形概要