The relationship between dynamic and pseudo-thermodynamic measures of the glass transition temperature in nanostructured materials

J Chem Phys. 2017 May 28;146(20):203316. doi: 10.1063/1.4977520.

Abstract

Despite decades of research on the effects of nanoconfinement on the glass transition temperature Tg, apparent discrepancies between pseudothermodynamic and dynamic measurements of these effects have raised questions regarding the presence of long-ranged interfacial dynamic gradients in glass-forming liquids. Here we show that these differences can be accounted for based on disparities in these methods' weightings over local Tg's within an interfacial gradient. This finding suggests that a majority of experimental data are consistent with a broad interfacial dynamic interphase in glass-forming liquids.