Glass transition

The glass–liquid transition or glass transition for short is the reversible transition in amorphous materials (or in amorphous regions within semicrystalline materials) from a hard and relatively brittle "glassy" state into a viscous or rubbery state as the temperature is increased. An amorphous solid that exhibits a glass transition is called a glass. The reverse transition, achieved by supercooling a viscous liquid into the glass state, is called vitrification.

The glass-transition temperature T_g of a material characterizes the range of temperatures over which this glass transition occurs. It is always lower than the melting temperature, T_m, of the crystalline state of the material, if one exists.

Hard plastics like polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) are used well below their glass transition temperatures, that is in their glassy state. Their T_g values are well above room temperature, both at around 100 °C (212 °F). Rubber elastomers like polyisoprene and polyisobutylene are used above their T_g, that is, in the rubbery state, where they are soft and flexible.

Despite the change in the physical properties of a material through its glass transition, the transition is not considered a phase transition; rather it is a phenomenon extending over a range of temperature and defined by one of several conventions. Such conventions include a constant cooling rate (20 kelvins per minute (36 °F/min)) and a viscosity threshold of 10¹²Pa·s, among others. Upon cooling or heating through this glass-transition range, the material also exhibits a smooth step in the thermal-expansion coefficient and in the specific heat, with the location of these effects again being dependent on the history of the material. The question of whether some phase transition underlies the glass transition is a matter of continuing research.

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