Second-order Phase Transition Behavior behind Polymer Glass Transition

19 October 2021, Version 6
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Glass transition has similarity to the second-order phase transition in temperature dependent changes in entropy, non-Arrhenius viscosity, and heat capacity of glass forming materials. However, it has primarily been considered to be not phase transition. Recent single-molecule spectroscopy developments prompted re-investigating glass transition at the nanometer scale probing resolution, showing that glass transition includes phenomena similar to the second-order phase transition. They are characterized by microscopic collective polymer motion and discontinuous changes in temperature dependent relaxation times, the latter of which resembles the critical slowing down of second-order phase transitions, within a temperature window above the polymer calorimetric glass transition temperature. Simultaneous collective motion and critical slowing down occurrences disclose that the second-order phase transition hides behind polymer glass transition.

Keywords

fluorescence
glass phase
glass transition physics
Single Molecule

Supplementary materials

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ver 6.0 ChemRxiv SupportingInfo MIshikawa
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The ver 6.0 Supporting Information is updated in consistent with the ver 6.0 manuscript. In addition, several typos were collected.
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