Isothermal glass transitions in supercooled and overcompressed liquids

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We report the first calorimetric characterization of isothermal glass transitions obtained by changing the pressure at constant temperature. This isothermal glass transition is described in the case of m-fluoroaniline, a so-called fragile liquid. The method employed is based on Maxwell’s equations and involves measurement of the heat of compression of a sample enclosed in a hydrostatic pressure cell under isothermal and reversible conditions. A discontinuity of the thermodynamic quantity αV, where α is the expansivity and V is the molar volume, defines the glass transition pressure Pg at which ergodicity is broken on the time scale of the experiments (300–1000 s) which depends on the pressure step employed. The step in αV is found initially to decrease rapidly with increasing pressure. The slope (∂Pg/∂T)τ seems smaller than that determined by the usual isobaric methods, implying some distinction in the degrees of freedom involved and associated differences in defining the values of Tg. Because of the high sensitivity and stability of the calorimeter, we can also observe annealing effects in the overcompressed glass at a pressure above Pg; the slow dynamic processes associated are called entropic relaxation because it is the entropy which is measured directly. An approximate relaxation function and a model for the compression data are discussed. Keeping in mind the overall pattern of ‘‘strong and fragile’’ liquid behavior, isothermal pressure variations appear to offer a useful tool to connect these extremes and may constrain the glass transition of a molecular liquid in a particular range of the P–T diagram. The concept of Kauzmann pressure PK is introduced, but it is noted that PK must become less well defined the further from ambient pressure it lies due to the decrease in ΔαV which is observed with increasing pressure.