The glassy amorphous state

In the glassy amorphous state polymers possess insufficient free volume to permit the cooperative motion of chain segments. Thermal motion is limited to classical modes of vibration involving an atom and its nearest neighbors. In this state, the polymer behaves in a glass-like fashion. When we flex or stretch glassy amorphous polymers beyond a few percent strain they crack or break in a britde fashion. 

Gedde, U. W. (2001), The Glassy Amorphous State in Polymer Physics, 4th ed., Kluwer Academic, Amsterdam, Chapter 5. 

A polymer molecule can adopt many different shapes primarily due to its degree of freedom for torsion about a bonds. These states are referred to as conformations. A polymer molecule in a solution, in the molten state and probably also in the glassy, amorphous state, can be characterized as a random coil. 

NMR relaxation and small-angle X-ray scattering indicated that the intramolecular orientation is only slightly affected by the presence of other chains in the glassy amorphous state and that axial correlation is of the order of 1 nm or less. 

If technically possible, all samples were heated and cooled down again. In neither case, the amorphous solid state spectrum changed appreciably after performing these mild temperature programs. No special procedures (like precipitation from solution) were chosen to influence the microstructure of the glassy amorphous state. 

Solution, From Table 4.8 we get s/k = 106.7 K for oxygen. Thus, Eq. 4.69 gives for both polymers (they are in the glassy amorphous state) the mean value for solubility as... 

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