A structural phase transition at 151.6 K of the title compound [bis(trans-4-butylcyclohexyl)methanol] is examined by X-ray diffraction crystallography, FT-IR spectroscopy and adiabatic calorimetry. A general consideration on possible superstructures show that a single modulation wave is sufficient to drive this cell-quintupling transition. The entropy of transition determined calorimetrically indicates that two conformations are dominant in the room-temperature phase in contrast to the fivefold disorder expected from the structure of the low-temperature phase.
(J. Chem. Phys., 146, 074503 (2017))