The phase transition and critical behaviors of charged AdS black holes in [Formula: see text] gravity with a conformally invariant Maxwell (CIM) source and constant curvature are further investigated. As a highlight, this research is carried out by employing new state parameters [Formula: see text] and contributes to deeper understanding of the thermodynamics and phase structure of black holes. Our analyses manifest that the charged [Formula: see text]-CIM AdS black hole undergoes a first-order small–large black hole phase transition, and the critical behaviors qualitatively behave like a Van der Waals liquid–vapor system. However, differing from the case in Einstein’s gravity, phase structures of the black holes in [Formula: see text] theory exhibit an interesting dependence on gravity modification parameters. Moreover, we adopt the thermodynamic geometry to probe the black hole microscopic properties. The results show that, on the one hand, both the Ruppeiner curvature and heat capacity diverge exactly at the critical point, on the other hand, the [Formula: see text]-CIM AdS black hole possesses the property as ideal Fermi gases. Of special interest, we discover a microscopic similarity between the black holes and a Van der Waals liquid–vapor system.
First order flow for non-extremal AdS black holes and mass from holographic renormalization