Glass transition temperature meaning

Note that subtracting an amount log a from the coordinate values along the abscissa is equivalent to dividing each of the t s by the appropriate a-p value. This means that times are represented by the reduced variable t/a in which t is expressed as a multiple or fraction of a-p which is called the shift factor. The temperature at which the master curve is constructed is an arbitrary choice, although the glass transition temperature is widely used. When some value other than Tg is used as a reference temperature, we shall designate it by the symbol To. 

It must be above its glass transition temperature, which means that the polymer chains have sufficient thermal energy to move freely. Many rubbery materials have glass transition temperatures around 200 K, below which they are glassy, like plastics. 

Glass transition temperature (Tg), measured by means of dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of E-plastomers has been measured in binary blends of iPP and E-plastomer. These studies indicate some depression in the Tg in the binary, but incompatible, blends compared to the Tg of the corresponding neat E-plastomer. This is attributed to thermally induced internal stress resulting from differential volume contraction of the two phases during cooling from the melt. The temperature dependence of the specific volume of the blend components was determined by PVT measurement of temperatures between 30°C and 270°C and extrapolated to the elastomer Tg at —50°C. 

Though both miscible and immiscible blends are composite materials, their properties are very different. A miscible blend will exhibit a single glass transition temperature that is intermediate between those of the individual polymers. In addition, the physical properties of the blends will also exhibit this intermediate behavior. Immiscible blends, on the other hand, still contain discrete phases of both polymers. This means that they have two glass transition temperatures and that each represents one of the two components of the blend. (A caveat must be added here in that two materials that are immiscible with very small domain sizes will also show a single, intermediate value for Tg.) In addition, the physical properties... 

Bueche (16,172) proposed that the viscosity is proportional to the fourth power of the polymer concentration and a complex function of the free volume of the mixture. Kraus and Gruver (170) find that the 3.4 power fits experimental data better than does the fourth power. They used equation (58) with (r2) replaced by the mean-square radius of gyration (s2). The term r2)/(rf) indicates that poor solvents should lower the viscosity more than a good solvent. As the temperature increases, the factor increases as a function of the ratio (T - 7 (tJJ)/(7 - 7 ). The glass transition temperatures of the polymer and diluent are andT o, respectively. 

In most investigations in solvents of medium or high viscosity, or in polymers above the glass transition temperature, the fluorescence quantum yields were in fact found to be a power function of the bulk viscosity, with values of the exponent x less than 1 (e.g. for p-N,N-dimethylaminobenzylidenemalononitrile, x = 0.69 in glycerol and 0.43 in dimethylphthalate). This means that the effective viscosity probed by a molecular rotor appears to be less than the bulk viscosity >/ because of free volume effects. 

Figure B8.2.1 shows the fluorescence spectra of DIPHANT in a polybutadiene matrix. The h/lu ratios turned out to be significantly lower than in solution, which means that the internal rotation of the probe is restricted in such a relatively rigid polymer matrix. The fluorescence intensity of the monomer is approximately constant at temperatures ranging from —100 to —20 °C, which indicates that the probe motions are hindered, and then decreases with a concomitant increase in the excimer fluorescence. The onset of probe mobility, detected by the start of the decrease in the monomer intensity and lifetime occurs at about —20 °C, i.e. well above the low-frequency static reference temperature Tg (glass transition temperature) of the polybutadiene sample, which is —91 °C (measured at 1 Hz). This temperature shift shows the strong dependence of the apparent polymer flexibility on the characteristic frequency of the experimental technique. This frequency is the reciprocal of the monomer excited-state...

---