Theory of the viscosity of supercooled liquids and the glass transition: fragile liquids.
A statistical mechanical theory is presented for viscosity of relatively low molecular weight organic liquids which are supercooled down to the glass transition temperature. In this theory a relation resembling the Stokes-Einstein relation between the viscosity and self-diffusion coefficient of supercooled liquids and an expression for the self-diffusion coefficient are augmented by a suitably constructed semiempirical generic van der Waals equation of state that makes it possible to calculate the free volume. The theory accounts in excellent accuracy for viscosities and self-diffusion coefficients of fragile liquids over the entire range of temperature experimentally investigated. According to the theory, vitrification occurs when the free volume available for translational molecular motion falls below a critical value.
Rah
Kyunil
K
Department of Chemistry and Centre for the Study of Nonequilibrium and Nano Materials, McGill University, 801 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 2K6.
Eu
Byung Chan
BC