Steepness-fragility insights from the temperature derivative analysis of dielectric data of a highly nonsymmetric liquid crystal dimer

A comprehensive dynamic analysis of the dielectric relaxation-time data across a broad temperature range for both isotropic and nematic phases has been conducted on the CBO3O.Py liquid crystal dimer, the shorter chain-length compound within the highly nonsymmetric pyrene-based series of liquid crystal dimers (CBOnO.Py, with n ranging from 3 to 11). It was known from another previous study that in the nematic phase, three different relaxation processes contribute to the complex dielectric permittivity depending on the orientation of the alignment axis with respect to the probing electric field direction. The temperature-derivative analysis of the relaxation-time data using different analytic functions reveals that the critical-like description, through the dynamic scaling model, best portrays the relaxation-time data in the nematic phase as the system approaches the glass transition. A single glass transition temperature is obtained which is consistent with thermal stimulated depolarization currents experimental determinations published elsewhere. From temperature-dependent steepness index m(T), the activation-critical model is also considered as a more general analytic function from which the dynamic scaling model is a terminal approximation. Additionally, the critical-like parametrization provides insight into obtaining a universal description of the temperature-dependent steepness index m(T), for all liquid crystal compounds belonging to symmetry-selected glass formers, such as rodlike liquid crystal monomers.

Glassy relaxation in a de Vries smectic liquid crystal consisting of bent-core molecules

We report experimental investigations of a liquid crystal comprising thiophene-based achiral bent-core banana shaped molecules. The compound exhibits the following phase sequence on cooling: Isotropic (517.4 K), N (514.9 K), de Vries SmA (402 K), SmC. Practically no layer contraction was observed across the SmA to SmC transition, confirming the "de Vries" nature of the SmA phase. Interestingly, the crystallization does not occur on cooling the sample, unlike most other liquid crystals. Instead, the SmC phase undergoes a glass transition at 271 K even at a slow cooling rate. The dielectric spectroscopy studies carried out on the sample reveal the presence of a dielectric mode whose relaxation process is of the Cole-Cole type. The relaxation frequency of the mode was found to drop rapidly with decreasing temperature, confirming the glassy behavior. The variation of relaxation frequency with temperature follows the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann equation, indicating the fragile glassy nature of the sample. This report identifies a bent-core liquid crystal exhibiting a "de Vries" SmA phase and glassy behavior at lower temperatures.

From the Kinetic Theory of Gases to the Kinetics of Rate Processes: On the Verge of the Thermodynamic and Kinetic Limits

A variety of current experiments and molecular dynamics computations are expanding our understanding of rate processes occurring in extreme environments, especially at low temperatures, where deviations from linearity of Arrhenius plots are revealed. The thermodynamic behavior of molecular systems is determined at a specific temperature within conditions on large volume and number of particles at a given density (the thermodynamic limit): on the other side, kinetic features are intuitively perceived as defined in a range between the extreme temperatures, which limit the existence of each specific phase. In this paper, extending the statistical mechanics approach due to Fowler and collaborators, ensembles and partition functions are defined to evaluate initial state averages and activation energies involved in the kinetics of rate processes. A key step is delayed access to the thermodynamic limit when conditions on a large volume and number of particles are not fulfilled: the involved mathematical analysis requires consideration of the role of the succession for the exponential function due to Euler, precursor to the Poisson and Boltzmann classical distributions, recently discussed. Arguments are presented to demonstrate that a universal feature emerges: Convex Arrhenius plots (super-Arrhenius behavior) as temperature decreases are amply documented in progressively wider contexts, such as viscosity and glass transitions, biological processes, enzymatic catalysis, plasma catalysis, geochemical fluidity, and chemical reactions involving collective phenomena. The treatment expands the classical Tolman’s theorem formulated quantally by Fowler and Guggenheim: the activation energy of processes is related to the averages of microscopic energies. We previously introduced the concept of “transitivity”, a function that compactly accounts for the development of heuristic formulas and suggests the search for universal behavior. The velocity distribution function far from the thermodynamic limit is illustrated; the fraction of molecules with energy in excess of a certain threshold for the description of the kinetics of low-temperature transitions and of non-equilibrium reaction rates is derived. Uniform extension beyond the classical case to include quantum tunneling (leading to the concavity of plots, sub-Arrhenius behavior) and to Fermi and Bose statistics has been considered elsewhere. A companion paper presents a computational code permitting applications to a variety of phenomena and provides further examples.

Moderately and strongly supercooled liquids: A temperature-derivative study of the primary relaxation time scale

The primary relaxation time scale tau(T) derived from the glass forming supercooled liquids (SCLs) is discussed within ergodic-cluster Gaussian statistics, theoretically justified near and above the glass-transformation temperature T(g). An analysis is given for the temperature-derivative data by Stickel et al. on the steepness and the curvature of tau(T). Near the mode-coupling-theory (MCT) crossover T(c), these derivatives separate by a kink and a jump, respectively, the moderately and strongly SCL states. After accounting for the kink and the jump, the steepness remains a piecewise conitnuous function, a material-independent equation for the three fundamental characteristic temperatures, T(g), T(c), and the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman (VFT) T(0), is found. Both states are described within the heterostructured model of solidlike clusters parametrized in a self-consistent manner by a minimum set of observable parameters: the fragility index, the MCT slowing-down exponent, and the chemical excess potential of Adam and Gibbs model (AGM). Below the Arrhenius temperature, the dynamically and thermodynamically stabilized clusters emerge with a size of around of seven to nine and two to three molecules above and close to T(g) and T(c), respectively. On cooling, the main transformation of the moderately into the strongly supercooled state is due to rebuilding of the cluster structure, and is attributed to its rigidity, introduced through the cluster compressibility. It is shown that the validity of the dynamic AGM (dynamically equivalent to the standard VFT form) is limited by the strongly supercooled state (T(g) < T < T(c)) where the superrigid cooperative rearranging regions are shown to be well-chosen parametrized solidlike clusters. Extension of the basic parameter set by the observable kinetic and diffusive exponents results in prediction of a subdiffusion relaxation regime in SCLs that is distinct from that established for amorphous polymers.

Universal scaling, dynamic fragility, segmental relaxation, and vitrification in polymer melts

Our theory of dynamic barriers, slow relaxation, and the glass transition of polymers melts is numerically applied using parameters relevant to real materials. The numerical results are found to be in qualitative agreement with all the approximate analytic expressions previously derived with quantitative differences on the order of approximately 20-30% or much less. The analytic prediction of a universal temperature dependence of the alpha relaxation time, and its intimate connection with the idea of a nearly universal crossover time, is established. Inter-relations between the breadth of the deeply supercooled regime, two definitions of the dynamic fragility, and the magnitude of the fast local Arrhenius process at the glass transition temperature are demonstrated and system-specific limitations identified. A quantitative application to segmental relaxation over 16 orders of magnitude in a polyvinylacetate melt yields encouraging results regarding the accuracy of the theory. The theoretical relaxation time results are well fit by multiple empirical forms (generally containing an assumed singular aspect) using parameters consistent with experimental studies. No physical significance is ascribed to this finding, but it does provide additional support for the temperature dependence of the alpha relaxation process predicted by the theory.

Dynamic scaling approach to glass formation

Experimental data for the temperature dependence of relaxation times are used to argue that the dynamic scaling form, with relaxation time diverging at the critical temperature T(c) as (T-T(c))(-nuz), is superior to the classical Vogel form. This observation leads us to propose that glass formation can be described by a simple mean-field limit of a phase transition. The order parameter is the fraction of all space that has sufficient free volume to allow substantial motion, and grows logarithmically above T(c). Diffusion of this free volume creates random walk clusters that have cooperatively rearranged. We show that the distribution of cooperatively moving clusters must have a Fisher exponent tau=2. Dynamic scaling predicts a power law for the relaxation modulus G(t) approximately t(-2/z), where z is the dynamic critical exponent relating the relaxation time of a cluster to its size. Andrade creep, universally observed for all glass-forming materials, suggests z=6. Experimental data on the temperature dependence of viscosity and relaxation time of glass-forming liquids suggest that the exponent nu describing the correlation length divergence in this simple scaling picture is not always universal. Polymers appear to universally have nuz=9 (making nu=3 / 2). However, other glass-formers have unphysically large values of nuz, suggesting that the availability of free volume is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for motion in these liquids. Such considerations lead us to assert that nuz=9 is in fact universal for all glass- forming liquids, but an energetic barrier to motion must also be overcome for strong glasses.

Formation of Glasses from Liquids and Biopolymers

Glasses can be formed by many routes. In some cases, distinct polyamorphic forms are found. The normal mode of glass formation is cooling of a viscous liquid. Liquid behavior during cooling is classified between "strong" and "fragile," and the three canonical characteristics of relaxing liquids are correlated through the fragility. Strong liquids become fragile liquids on compression. In some cases, such conversions occur during cooling by a weak first-order transition. This behavior can be related to the polymorphism in a glass state through a recent simple modification of the van der Waals model for tetrahedrally bonded liquids. The sudden loss of some liquid degrees of freedom through such first-order transitions is suggestive of the polyamorphic transition between native and denatured hydrated proteins, which can be interpreted as single-chain glass-forming polymers plasticized by water and cross-linked by hydrogen bonds. The onset of a sharp change in d<r(2)>dT(<r(2)> is the Debye-Waller factor and T is temperature) in proteins, which is controversially indentified with the glass transition in liquids, is shown to be general for glass formers and observable in computer simulations of strong and fragile ionic liquids, where it proves to be close to the experimental glass transition temperature. The latter may originate in strong anharmonicity in modes ("bosons"), which permits the system to access multiple minima of its configuration space. These modes, the Kauzmann temperature T(K), and the fragility of the liquid, may thus be connected.