Fragile Glass Formers Research Articles

Primary α and secondary β relaxation dynamics of meta-toluidine in the liquid state investigated by broadband dielectric spectroscopy.

We report a broadband dielectric spectroscopic (BDS) study on the clustering fragile glass-former meta-toluidine (m-TOL) from 187 K up to 289 K over a wide frequency range of 10-3-109 Hz with focus on the primary α relaxation and the secondary β relaxation above the glass temperature Tg. The broadband dielectric spectra were fitted by using the Havriliak-Negami (HN) and Cole-Cole (CC) models. The β process disappearing at Tβ,disap = 1.12Tg exhibits non-Arrhenius dependence fitted by the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman-Hesse equation with T0βVFTH in accord with the characteristic differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) limiting temperature of the glassy state. The essential feature of the α process consists in the distinct changes of its spectral shape parameter βHN marked by the characteristic BDS temperatures TB1βHN and TB2βHN. The primary α relaxation times were fitted over the entire temperature and frequency range by several current three-parameter up to six-parameter dynamic models. This analysis reveals that the crossover temperatures of the idealized mode coupling theory model (TcMCT), the extended free volume model (T0EFV), and the two-order parameter (TOP) model (Tmc) are close to TB1βHN, which provides a consistent physical rationalization for the first change of the shape parameter. In addition, the other two characteristic TOP temperatures T0TOP and TA are coinciding with the thermodynamic Kauzmann temperature TK and the second change of the shape parameter at around TB2βHN, respectively. These can be related to the onset of the liquid-like domains in the glassy state or the disappearance of the solid-like domains in the normal liquid state.

A fully tetrahedral and highly corner-sharing network model of ZnCl2 glass and its comparison to SiO2 glass.

Zinc chloride, ZnCl2, is intermediate between a strong and a fragile glass former. During computational simulations, it is therefore important to account for ion polarizability. This, together with the lack of suitable interatomic potential parameters, is the likely cause for the lack of modeling studies on ZnCl2 glass which contain a high degree of ZnCl4 tetrahedral units. Through using accurate interatomic potential parameters and applying the adiabatic core-shell model, the first fully tetrahedral model of ZnCl2 glass was obtained. The Cl-Zn-Cl bond angle of 109° reproduced the ideal tetrahedral bond angle, and the calculated total neutron and x-ray structure factors closely replicated experimental findings. While 86% of the ZnCl4 tetrahedral units were corner-sharing, 14% were found to be edge-sharing. This led to two distinct contributions in both the Zn-Cl-Zn bond angle distribution and in the Zn⋯Zn nearest neighbour peaks being seen. These are not apparent in studies based on neutron diffraction. By comparing the intermediate glass former ZnCl2 to the strong glass former SiO2, marked differences in ring statistics became apparent. The Zn-Cl-Zn bond angle of around 110° enabled 3-membered rings to form in significant proportions. In contrast, 3-membered rings were only present in SiO2 glass as defects. By calculating the ZnCl2 and SiO2 partial structure factors, strong similarities became visible after scaling according to nearest neighbour distances. Although it was apparent that the main contributions to the first sharp diffraction peak (FSDP) came from cation-anion correlations, the relative scaling of the FSDP positions in ZnCl2 and SiO2 glass was not understood.

Density dependence of relaxation dynamics in glass formers, and the dependence of their fragility on the softness of inter-particle interactions

Fragility, quantifying the rapidity of variation of relaxation times, is analysed for a series of model glass formers, which differ in the softness of their interparticle interactions. In an attempt to rationalize experimental observations in colloidal suspensions that softer interactions lead to stronger (less fragile) glass formers, we study the variation of relaxation dynamics with density, rather than temperature, as a control parameter. We employ density-temperature scaling, analyzed in recent studies, to address the question. We find that while employing inverse density in place of temperature leads to the conclusion that softer interactions lead to stronger behaviour, the use of scaled variables involving temperature and density lead to the opposite conclusion, similarly to earlier investigations where temperature variation of relaxation dynamics was analysed for the same systems. We rationalize our results by considering the Adam-Gibbs (AG) fragility, which incorporates the density dependence of the configurational entropy and an activation energy that may arise from other properties of a glass former. Within the framework of the Adam-Gibbs relation, by employing density temperature scaling for the analysis, we find that softer particles make more fragile glasses, as deduced from dynamical quantities, which is found to be consistent with the Adam-Gibbs fragility. We analyse fragility, which quantifies the rapidity of variation of relaxation times, using density as the control variable, for model glass formers with varying softness of interactions. Using scaled variables, we find – and rationalise thermodynamically by computing configurational entropy – that fragility increases with softness, contrary to previous work.

Direct observation of dynamic crossover in fragile molecular glass formers with 2D IR vibrational echo spectroscopy.

The dynamics of supercooled liquids of the molecular glass formers benzophenone and ortho-terphenyl were investigated with 2D IR spectroscopy using long-lived vibrational probes. The long lifetimes of the probes enabled structural dynamics of the liquids to be studied from a few hundred femtoseconds to a nanosecond. 2D IR experiments measured spectraldiffusion of a vibrational probe, which reports on structural fluctuations of the liquid. Analysis of the 2D IR data provides the frequency-frequency correlation function (FFCF). Two vibrational probes were examined with equivalent results, demonstrating the observed liquid dynamics are not significantly influenced by the probe molecules. At higher temperatures, the FFCF is a biexponential decay. However, at mild supercooling, the biexponential decay is no longer sufficient, indicating a dynamic crossover. The crossover occurs at a temperature well above the mode-coupling theory critical temperature for the given liquid, indicating dynamic heterogeneity above the critical temperature. Examination of the low temperature data with lifetime density analysis shows that the change is best described as an additional, distinct relaxation that shows behavior consistent with a slow β-process.

Does fragility of glass formation determine the strength of Tg-nanoconfinement effects?

Nanoscale confinement has been shown to alter the glass transition and associated mechanical and transport properties of glass-forming materials. Inspired by expected interrelations between nanoconfinement effects, cooperative dynamics in supercooled liquids, and the "fragility" (or temperature-abruptness) of the glass transition, it is commonly expected that nanoconfinement effects on Tg should be more pronounced for more fragile glass formers. Here we employ molecular dynamics simulations of glass formation in the bulk and under nanoconfinement of model polymers in which we systematically tune fragility by several routes. Results indicate that a correlation between fragility and the strength of nanoconfinement effects is weak to modest at best when considering all systems but can appear to be stronger when considering a subset of systems. This outcome is consistent with a reanalysis of the Adam-Gibbs theory of glass formation indicating that fragility does not necessarily track in a universal way with the scale of cooperative motion in glass-forming liquids. Finally, we find that factors such as composition gradients or variability in measurement sensitivity to different parts of the dynamic gradient have the potential to significantly confound efforts to identify trends in Tg-nanoconfinement effects with variables such as fragility, emphasizing the importance of employing diverse data sets and multiple metrologies in the study of this problem.

Dipolar Reorientations in Amorphous Nimesulide: A TSDC and DSC Study.

The preparation of APIs in the amorphous solid form can be a means of circumventing problems arising from poor solubility and low dissolution rate of the crystalline drugs. However, molecular mobility can be responsible for the glass instability, so that the kinetic characterization of the different relaxations that subsist in the amorphous solid is useful to allow define the conditions for greater stability of the glassy pharmaceutical. Our purpose is to use the experimental techniques of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermally stimulated depolarization currents (TSDC) to study the thermal behavior of the pharmaceutical drug nimesulide and its slow molecular mobility in the amorphous solid state. DSC provides us a general view of the thermal behaviour of nimesulide and allows a general kinetic characterization of its glass transition relaxation. TSDC allows isolating the individual modes of motion present in nimesulide (in the temperature range between -150ºC and +15ºC). From the experimental output of the TSDC experiments, the kinetic parameters associated with the different mobility modes of motion were obtained, which allowed a detailed characterisation of the distribution of relaxation times of the complex relaxations. No molecular mobility was detected below ∼ -30ºC. A sub-Tg relaxation, or secondary process, was found by TSDC in the temperature region between ∼ -15ºC and ∼ +7ºC; this is a local mobility that is affected by physical aging, and was attributed to a slow β-relaxation (Johari-Goldstein). The analysis by DSC and TSDC of the α-relaxation showed that nimesulide is a moderately fragile glass former. The dynamic fragility obtained by DSC was mDSC = 52 while that obtained by TSDC was mTSDC = 70. From the DSC study of the thermal behaviour we concluded that nimesulide has a moderate glass forming ability and a week glass stability. The fact that the cold crystallization occurs only some few tens of degrees above the glass transition temperature, and shows a slow kinetics, allowed the study of the mobility by TSDC. TSDC thus proved to be an adequate technique to study the molecular mobility in the amorphous nimesulide. However, the study by spectroscopic dielectric relaxation is probably impossible under these conditions.

Dielectric Spectroscopy in Ibuprofen-Dioxane Mixture

In recent years, the dielectric study of amorphous pharmaceuticals has made a considerable effort towards correlating the molecular mobility with their physical and chemical stability. The molecular mobility of amorphous materials is affected by temperature, additives (such as water) and specific interactions (such as Hydrogen bond). Therefore, to understand the physicochemical instability of amorphous materials, nature of their molecular mobility needs to comprehend. In this order, the Dielectric and Calorimetric measurements were performed on a mixture of ibuprofen and 1,4-dioxane. The dielectric spectroscopy reveals two relaxation processes, (designated as αD, and α) in the supercooled region. The spectral shape of αD and α process can be explained satisfactorily throughout the frequency range using Havriliak-Negami (HN) shape function. The αD process is found to be Debye-like (i.e., αHN=0 and βHN=1) in nature and α process kinetically freezes at Tg-onset (DSC) implies that α- process indeed corresponds to the glass transition event. Both processes are found to be non-Arrhenius in nature. In addition, two secondary relaxation processes (designated as βJG and β) are observed and are comparable with the literature. The activation energy of β process indicates that it‟s originating from the fluctuations of the side group larger than -OH group. Also, the calculated fragility index demonstrates that ibuprofen is a fragile glass former.

The amorphous state: first-principles derivation of the Gordon-Taylor equation for direct prediction of the glass transition temperature of mixtures; estimation of the crossover temperature of fragile glass formers; physical basis of the "Rule of 2/3".

Predicting the glass transition temperature (Tg) of mixtures has applications that span across industries and scientific disciplines. By plotting experimentally determined Tg values as a function of the glass composition, one can usually apply the Gordon-Taylor (G-T) equation to determine the slope, k, which subsequently can be used in Tg predictions. Traditionally viewed as a phenomenological/empirical model, this work proposes a physical basis for the G-T equation. The proposed equations allow for the calculation of k directly and, hence, they determine/predict the Tg values of mixtures algebraically. Two derivations for k are provided, one for strong glass-formers and the other for fragile mixtures, with the modeled trehalose-water and naproxen-indomethacin systems serving as examples of each. Separately, a new equation is described for the first time that allows for the direct determination of the crossover temperature, Tx, for fragile glass-formers. Lastly, the so-called "Rule of 2/3", which is commonly used to estimate the Tg of a pure amorphous phase based solely on the fusion/melting temperature, Tf, of the corresponding crystalline phase, is shown to be underpinned by the heat capacity ratio of the two phases referenced to a common temperature, as evidenced by the calculations put forth for indomethacin and felodipine.

Significant difference in the dynamics between strong and fragile glass formers.

Glass-forming liquids are often classified into strong glass formers with nearly Arrhenius behavior and fragile ones with super-Arrhenius behavior. We reveal a significant difference in the dynamics between these two types of glass formers through molecular dynamics simulations: In strong glass formers, the relaxation dynamics of density fluctuations is nondiffusive, whereas in fragile glass formers it exhibits diffusive behavior. We demonstrate that this distinction is a direct consequence of the fundamental difference in the underlying elementary relaxation process between these two dynamical classes of glass formers. For fragile glass formers, a density-exchange process proceeds the density relaxation, which takes place locally at the particle level in normal states but is increasingly cooperative and nonlocal as the temperature is lowered in supercooled states. On the other hand, in strong glass formers, such an exchange process is not necessary for density relaxation due to the presence of other local relaxation channels. Our finding provides a novel insight into Angell's classification scheme from a hydrodynamic perspective.

Enhanced diffusion in finite-size simulations of a fragile diatomic glass former.

Using molecular dynamics simulations we investigate the finite-size dependence of the dynamical properties of a diatomic supercooled liquid. The simplicity of the molecule permits us to access the microsecond time scale. We find that the relaxation time decreases simultaneously with the strength of cooperative motions when the size of the system decreases. While the decrease of the cooperative motions is in agreement with previous studies, the decrease of the relaxation time opposes what has been reported to date in monatomic glass formers and in silica. This result suggests the presence of different competing physical mechanisms in the relaxation process. For very small box sizes the relaxation times behavior reverses itself and increases strongly when the box size decreases, thus leading to a nonmonotonic behavior. This result is in qualitative agreement with defect and facilitation theories.

Effect of chain stiffness and temperature on the dynamics and microstructure of crystallizable bead-spring polymer melts.

We contrast the dynamics in model unentangled polymer melts of chains of three different stiffnesses: flexible, intermediate, and rodlike. Flexible and rodlike chains, which readily solidify into close-packed crystals (respectively, with randomly oriented and nematically aligned chains), display simple melt dynamics with Arrhenius temperature dependence and a discontinuous change upon solidification. Intermediate-stiffness chains, however, are fragile glass-formers displaying Vogel-Fulcher dynamical arrest, despite the fact that they also possess a nematic-close-packed crystalline ground state. To connect this difference in dynamics to the differing microstructure of the melts, we examine how various measures of structure, including cluster-level metrics recently introduced in studies of colloidal systems, vary with chain stiffness and temperature. No clear static-structural cause of the dynamical arrest is found. However, we find that the intermediate-stiffness chains display qualitatively different dynamical heterogeneity. Specifically, their stringlike motion (cooperative rearrangement) is correlated along chain backbones in a way not found for either flexible or rodlike chains. This activated "crawling" motion is clearly associated with the dynamical arrest observed in these systems, and illustrates one way in which factors controlling the crystallization versus glass formation competition in polymers can depend nonmonotonically on chain stiffness.

Effect of yttrium addition on the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics and fragility of Cu-Zr-Al bulk metallic glass

Bulk metallic glasses with the composition of Cu43Zr48Al9 and (Cu43Zr48Al9)98Y2 were prepared by copper mold casting technique in this paper. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to investigate their structure and non-isothermal crystallization kinetics. The results show that the influence of heating rate on crystallization is larger than that on glass transition. The crystallization process of (Cu43Zr48Al9)98Y2 is more sensitive to heating rate than that of Cu43Zr48Al9. Due to Yttrium addition, the glass transition and nucleation process for crystallization become easier, while the grain growth process for crystallization become more difficult based on the activation energies. The Avrami exponents of (Cu43Zr48Al9)98Y2 decrease at low heating rates, which is totally different from that of Cu43Zr48Al9. These two bulk metallic glasses should be considered as “Intermediately fragile glass formers” according to their fragility indices.

Universal scaling in the aging of the strong glass former SiO2.

We show that the aging dynamics of a strong glass former displays a strikingly simple scaling behavior, connecting the average dynamics with its fluctuations, namely, the dynamical heterogeneities. We perform molecular dynamics simulations of SiO2 with van Beest-Kramer-van Santen interactions, quenching the system from high to low temperature, and study the evolution of the system as a function of the waiting time tw measured from the instant of the quench. We find that both the aging behavior of the dynamic susceptibility χ4 and the aging behavior of the probability distribution P(fs,r) of the local incoherent intermediate scattering function fs,r can be described by simple scaling forms in terms of the global incoherent intermediate scattering function C. The scaling forms are the same that have been found to describe the aging of several fragile glass formers and that, in the case of P(fs,r), have been also predicted theoretically. A thorough study of the length scales involved highlights the importance of intermediate length scales. We also analyze directly the scaling dependence on particle type and on wavevector q and find that both the average and the fluctuations of the slow aging dynamics are controlled by a unique aging clock, which is not only independent of the wavevector q, but is also the same for O and Si atoms.

Dramatically growing shear rigidity length scale in the supercooled glass formerNiZr2

Finding a suitably growing length scale that increases in tandem with the immense viscous slowdown of supercooled liquids is an open problem associated with the glass transition. Here, we define and demonstrate the existence of one such length scale which may be experimentally verifiable. This is the length scale over which external shear perturbations appreciably penetrate into a liquid as the glass transition is approached. We provide simulation based evidence of its existence, and its growth by at least an order of magnitude, by using molecular dynamics simulations of NiZr2, a good fragile glass former. On the probed timescale, upon approaching the glass transition temperature from above, this length scale, {\xi} is also shown to be consistent with Ising-like scaling. Furthermore, we demonstrate the possible scaling of {\xi} about the temperature at which super-Arrhenius growth of viscosity, and a marked growth of the penetration depth sets in. Our simulation results suggest that upon supercooling, marked initial increase of the shear penetration depth in fluids may occur in tandem with the breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein relation.

Universal behavior of the viscosity of supercooled fragile and polymeric glassformers in different temperature regions

Abstract The behavior of the viscosity of supercooled liquids with temperature has been extensively studied in different regimes. We present a universal behavior for the Logarithmic Shift Factor for fragile and polymeric glassformers in two temperature regions, above and below the crossover temperature T c , respectively. We find two different equations, one for each region, that may be represented as master plots which show universal behaviors for both cases.

Reduced strength and extent of dynamic heterogeneity in a strong glass former as compared to fragile glass formers

We examined dynamic heterogeneity in a model tetrahedral network glass-forming liquid. We used four-point correlation functions to extract dynamic correlation lengths ξ4(a)(t) and susceptibilities χ4(a)(t) corresponding to structural relaxation on two length scales a. One length scale corresponds to structural relaxation at nearest neighbor distances and the other corresponds to relaxation of the tetrahedral structure. We find that the dynamic correlation length ξ4(a) grows much slower with increasing relaxation time than for model fragile glass formers. We also find that χ4(a)∼(ξ4(a))(z) for a range of temperatures, but z < 3 at the lowest temperatures examined in this study. However, we do find evidence that the temperature where Stokes-Einstein violation begins marks a temperature where there is a change in the character of dynamically heterogeneous regions. Throughout the paper, we contrast the structure and dynamics of a strong glass former with that of a representative fragile glass former.

Kinetics of the glass transition of fragile soft colloidal suspensions.

Microscopic relaxation time scales are estimated from the autocorrelation functions obtained by dynamic light scattering experiments for Laponite suspensions with different concentrations (CL), added salt concentrations (CS), and temperatures (T). It has been shown in an earlier work [D. Saha, Y. M. Joshi, and R. Bandyopadhyay, Soft Matter 10, 3292 (2014)] that the evolutions of relaxation time scales of colloidal glasses can be compared with molecular glass formers by mapping the waiting time (tw) of the former with the inverse of thermodynamic temperature (1/T) of the latter. In this work, the fragility parameter D, which signifies the deviation from Arrhenius behavior, is obtained from fits to the time evolutions of the structural relaxation time scales. For the Laponite suspensions studied in this work, D is seen to be independent of CL and CS but is weakly dependent on T. Interestingly, the behavior of D corroborates the behavior of fragility in molecular glass formers with respect to equivalent variables. Furthermore, the stretching exponent β, which quantifies the width w of the spectrum of structural relaxation time scales, is seen to depend on tw. A hypothetical Kauzmann time tk, analogous to the Kauzmann temperature for molecular glasses, is defined as the time scale at which w diverges. Corresponding to the Vogel temperature defined for molecular glasses, a hypothetical Vogel time tα (∞) is also defined as the time at which the structural relaxation time diverges. Interestingly, a correlation is observed between tk and tα (∞), which is remarkably similar to that known for fragile molecular glass formers. A coupling model that accounts for the tw-dependence of the stretching exponent is used to analyse and explain the observed correlation between tk and tα (∞).

Collective relaxation dynamics and crystallization kinetics of the amorphous Biclotymol antiseptic

We employ dielectric spectroscopy to monitor the relaxation dynamics and crystallization kinetics of the Biclotymol antiseptic in its amorphous phase. The glass transition temperature of the material as determined by dielectric spectroscopy is Tg=290±1K. The primary (α) relaxation dynamics is observed to follow a Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann temperature dependence, with a kinetic fragility index m=86±13, which classifies Biclotymol as a relatively fragile glass former. A secondary relaxation is also observed, corresponding to an intramolecular dynamic process of the non-rigid Biclotymol molecule. The crystallization kinetics, measured at four different temperatures above the glass transition temperature, follows an Avrami behavior with exponent virtually equal to n=2, indicating one-dimensional crystallization into needle-like crystallites, as experimentally observed, with a time-constant nucleation rate. The activation barrier for crystallization is found to be Ea=115±22kJmol−1.

34. Designing next generation protectants

In order to advance towards the vitrification of complex organs, further advances in cryoprotectant compositions will be necessary. Systematic solution optimization has enabled the identification of superior combinations of cryoprotectants for various cell and tissue types, yet the range of chemicals used as protectants is still quite narrow and it is oftentimes not well understood why some compositions work better than others. The White House recently launched a “Materials Genome Initiative” to catalyze an integrated design process that uses feedback from computational studies to improve the efficiency of advanced materials development. This approach is very suitable to the design of Next Generation Protectants. For vitrification applications the main materials optimization parameters are cryoprotectant toxicity and glassy state properties. While advances have been made in understanding and predicting CPA toxicity, it is much harder to predict the glassy state characteristics of complex mixtures. Additive mixing rules provide little insight, as superior compositions often exhibit strong deviations from ideal solution behavior. In recent work we have combined advanced thermal analysis techniques, specifically Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), together with molecular modelling to explore the underling molecular mechanisms that give rise to Tg enhancements in protectant compositions in an effort to better understand the design rules that lead to improved compositions. Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, we have recently shown that divalent cations can strengthen the interacting network in electrolyte/glycerol mixtures via strong cation-dipole attractions, leading to an increase in T g 1 . In contrast, monovalent cations were observed to have little effect on Tg as the cation-dipole attraction was only slightly stronger than the original hydrogen-bonding network amongst glycerol molecules. The precursor of salt crystallization was also observed in these monovalent ion compositions, potentially contributing to weak Tg-enhancing ability. Using both thermal analysis and MD simulation we were also able to better understand the effects of phosphate anions on the glassy state properties of trehalose2. We observed that the addition of NaH2PO4 decreased both the glass transition temperature and the α -relaxation temperature of the dehydrated trehalose/NaH2PO4 mixture compared to trehalose alone while both Tg and Tα were increased by adding Na2HPO4 to pure trehalose. The hydrogen-bonding interactions between trehalose and HPO 4 2 - were found to be stronger than both the trehalose-trehalose hydrogen bonds and those formed between trehalose and H2 PO 4 - . The HPO 4 2 - ions also aggregated into smaller clusters than H2 PO 4 - ions, contributing to a more homogeneous glass network. Using DMA techniques we also demonstrated that when pure trehalose, a fragile glass-former, was diluted with a small amount of the strong glass-former, glycerol, the overall mixture was strengthened significantly. The fragility index (m) was observed to be minimized when glycerol was added at a 5–10 wt% concentration, the same formulation that has been shown by others to be maximally effective for preserving proteins in the glassy state. The combination of MD simulation and thermal analysis should prove to be very valuable for the development of Next Generation Protectants.

Extremely fragile glass-formers? Calorimetric and rheological determinations

We use calorimetry and rheology to investigate reports of extremely fragile polymers and the speculation that d,l-lactic acid should be extremely fragile. The dynamic fragilities of lactic acid, polysulfone, bisphenol-A polycarbonate, and poly(vinyl chloride) were studied. The polymers were used as received and after a wash-precipitation treatment. The current dynamic fragility findings are not in agreement with those reported by C. Evans, H. Deng, W. Jager, J. Torkelson, Macromolecules 2013, 46 (15), 6091–6103 of extremely high fragilities for the mentioned polymers. We also found no sample preparation history effect on the dynamic fragility values. The calorimetric and rheological results for the d,l-lactic acid show dynamic fragility values that are consistent with each other and are not extremely fragile. Calorimetric measurements that use a broad range of cooling rates gave smaller dynamic fragility values than those obtained from a limited range at higher cooling rates. The importance of the results is discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015, 53, 1261–1272