Collective Nonlinear Langevin Equation Theory Research Articles

Influence of chemistry, interfacial width, and non-isothermal conditions on spatially heterogeneous activated relaxation and elasticity in glass-forming free standing films.

We employ the Elastically Collective Nonlinear Langevin Equation (ECNLE) theory of activated relaxation to study several questions in free standing thin films of glass-forming molecular and polymer liquids. The influence of non-universal chemical aspects on dynamical confinement effects is found to be relatively weak, but with the caveat that for the systems examined, the bulk ECNLE polymer theory does not predict widely varying fragilities. Allowing the film model to have a realistic vapor interfacial width significantly enhances the reduction of the film-averaged glass transition temperature, Tg, in a manner that depends on whether a dynamic or pseudo-thermodynamic averaging of the spatial mobility gradient is adopted. The nature of film thickness effects on the spatial profiles of the alpha relaxation time and elastic modulus is studied under non-isothermal conditions and contrasted with the corresponding isothermal behavior. Modest differences are found if a film-thickness dependent Tg is defined in a dynamical manner. However, adopting a pseudo-thermodynamic measure of Tg leads to a qualitatively new form of the alpha relaxation time gradient where highly mobile layers near the film surface coexist with strongly vitrified regions in the film interior. As a consequence, the film-averaged shear modulus can increase with decreasing film thickness, despite the Tg reduction and presence of a mobile surface layer. Such a behavior stands in qualitative contrast to the predicted mechanical softening under isothermal conditions. Spatial gradients of the elastic modulus are studied as a function of temperature, film thickness, probing frequency, and experimental protocol, and a rich behavior is found.

Nonuniversal Coupling of Cage Scale Hopping and Collective Elastic Distortion as the Origin of Dynamic Fragility Diversity in Glass-Forming Polymer Liquids

We formulate a theoretical mechanism for the physical origin of the massive dynamic fragility range observed in long chain glass-forming polymer melts within the context of the force-level elastically collective nonlinear Langevin equation theory of coupled local–nonlocal activated segmental relaxation. The hypothesis involves how the cage scale barrier hopping process on the three Kuhn segment length scale is quantitatively coupled to the longer range collective elastic distortion required to sterically allow large-amplitude events to occur. The key nonuniversal aspect is proposed to be an effective microscopic jump distance, a dynamical quantity associated with the activation barrier, which is influenced by nanometer-scale conformational transition physics and monomer chemistry. By introducing a single numerical factor that breaks the universality of the jump distance in our mapping of polymers to liquids of disconnected Kuhn-sized hard spheres, one can account rather well, and simultaneously, for the v...

Dynamical Theory of Segmental Relaxation and Emergent Elasticity in Supercooled Polymer Melts

We generalize the force-level Elastically Collective Nonlinear Langevin Equation theory of supercooled molecular liquid dynamics to polymer melts based on mapping chains to disconnected and noninterpenetrating Kuhn-sized spheres. This allows first-principles, no adjustable parameter calculations to be performed for the temperature-dependent mean segmental relaxation time of chemically diverse van der Waals polymers over a wide range of molecular weights. Despite the simplicity of the mapping, the theory does a good job of a priori predicting the glass transition temperature (Tg), the dynamic fragility, and full temperature dependence of the α-relaxation time for some high molecular weight polymers and the chain length dependence of Tg as the consequence of the molecular weight dependence of backbone stiffness. The minimalist model does not capture the unusually low and high fragilities of certain long chain polymers which are not typical of van der Waals molecular liquids. This seems likely due to the sim...

Elastically cooperative activated barrier hopping theory of relaxation in viscous fluids. II. Thermal liquids.

Building on the elastically collective nonlinear Langevin equation theory developed for hard spheres in Paper I, we propose and implement a quasi-universal theory for the alpha relaxation of thermal liquids based on mapping them to an effective hard sphere fluid via the dimensionless compressibility. The result is a zero adjustable parameter theory that can quantitatively address in a unified manner the alpha relaxation time over 14 or more decades. The theory has no singularities above zero Kelvin, and relaxation in the equilibrium low temperature limit is predicted to be of a roughly Arrhenius form. The two-barrier (local cage and long range collective elastic) description results in a rich dynamic behavior including apparent Arrhenius, narrow crossover, and deeply supercooled regimes, and multiple characteristic or crossover times and temperatures of clear physical meaning. Application of the theory to nonpolar molecules, alcohols, rare gases, and liquids metals is carried out. Overall, the agreement with experiment is quite good for the temperature dependence of the alpha time, plateau shear modulus, and Boson-like peak frequency for van der Waals liquids, though less so for hydrogen-bonding molecules. The theory predicts multiple growing length scales upon cooling, which reflect distinct aspects of the coupled local hopping and cooperative elastic physics. Calculations of the growth with cooling of an activation volume, which is strongly correlated with a measure of dynamic cooperativity, agree quantitatively with experiment. Comparisons with elastic, entropy crisis, dynamic facilitation, and other approaches are performed, and a fundamental basis for empirically extracted crossover temperatures is established. The present work sets the stage for addressing distinctive glassy phenomena in polymer melts, and diverse liquids under strong confinement.