Structural Recovery of Glass-Forming Materials

The glass transition and structural recovery of glass-forming materials, including polymeric, small-molecule, and inorganic network glasses, have been studied in our laboratory using dilatometry and calorimetry. Of particular interest have been the relative timescales to reach equilibrium for different properties, whether the extrapolated liquid line is reached at equilibrium, the ability of phenomenological models to describe the structural recovery process, and behavior at the nanoscale. Recent work using a commercial rapid-scanning calorimeter has extended the time and temperature range to times as short as 0.01 s and temperatures up to 15 K above the nominal T$_{\mathrm{g}}$. Our results will be discussed in the context of unanswered questions in the field.