Comparative study of the NMR length scale of dynamic heterogeneities of three different glass formers

Abstract

This article presents a comparison of the determination of the length scale of dynamic heterogeneities in different glass formers by means of a multidimensional 13 C solid-state exchange NMR experiment. So far, results for poly(vinyl acetate) and glycerol have been reported. The existing data together with new results for o-terphenyl have been re-analysed in a slightly revised procedure. This revision is rationalised by computer experiments which are performed on hard-sphere systems in analogy to the NMR experiment. While we find domains in the region of 2–4 nm for PVAc and o-terphenyl, glycerol has a smaller domain of ≈1 nm.