Direct observation of molecular cooperativity near the glass transition

E. Vidal Russell and N. E. Israeloff ()
Additional contact information
E. Vidal Russell: Northeastern University
N. E. Israeloff: Northeastern University

Nature, 2000, vol. 408, issue 6813, 695-698

Abstract: Abstract The increasingly sluggish response of a supercooled liquid as it nears its glass transition1 (for example, refrigerated honey) is prototypical of glassy dynamics found in proteins, neural networks and superconductors. The notion that molecules rearrange cooperatively has long been postulated2 to explain diverging relaxation times and broadened (non-exponential) response functions near the glass transition. Recently, cooperativity was observed and analysed in colloid glasses3 and in simulations of binary liquids well above the glass transition4. But nanometre-scale studies of cooperativity at the molecular glass transition are lacking5. Important issues to be resolved include the precise form of the cooperativity and its length scale6, and whether the broadened response is intrinsic to individual cooperative regions, or arises only from heterogeneity7,8,9 in an ensemble of such regions. Here we describe direct observations of molecular cooperativity near the glass transition in polyvinylacetate (PVAc), using nanometre-scale probing of dielectric fluctuations. Molecular clusters switched spontaneously among two to four distinct configurations, producing random telegraph noise. Our analysis of these noise signals and their power spectra reveals that individual clusters exhibit transient dynamical heterogeneity and non-exponential kinetics.

Date: 2000
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35047037 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:408:y:2000:i:6813:d:10.1038_35047037

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35047037

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().