Calorimetric and thermodynamic study of glass-forming monohydroxy alcohols

Abstract

In this work, we review and concurrently discuss earlier and recent experiments performed on simple aliphatic glass-forming monoalcohols at low temperatures. By doing this, we find an interesting model system to explore different relevant issues concerning molecular glass-forming liquids and even the glass transition phenomenon itself. They include the role played by the molecular aspect ratio in vitrification/crystallisation kinetics, the reported appearance of particular cases of polymorphism and polyamorphism, and the influence of chemical isomerism and the location of the hydrogen bond on lattice dynamics and, hence, on low-temperature properties of glasses.

Keywords:

• glass transition
• monohydroxy alcohols
• specific heat
• polymorphism
• molecular glasses
• crystallisation kinetics

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science within both project FIS2009-09811 and program CONSOLIDER Nanociencia Molecular CSD2007-00010.