Glycerol in micellar confinement with tunable rigidity.

We investigate the glassy dynamics of glycerol in the confinement of a microemulsion system, which is stable on cooling down to the glass transition of its components. By changing the composition, we vary the viscosity of the matrix, while keeping the confining geometry intact, as is demonstrated by small angle X-ray scattering. By means of 2H NMR, differential scanning calorimetry, and triplet solvation dynamics we, thus, probe the dynamics of glycerol in confinements of varying rigidity. 2H NMR results show that, at higher temperatures, the dynamics of confined glycerol is unchanged compared to bulk behavior, while the reorientation of glycerol molecules becomes significantly faster than in the bulk in the deeply supercooled regime. However, comparison of different 2H NMR findings with data from calorimetry and solvation dynamics reveals that this acceleration is not due to the changed structural relaxation of glycerol, but rather due to the rotational motion of essentially rigid glycerol droplets or of aggregates of such droplets in a more fluid matrix. Thus, independent of the matrix mobility, the glycerol dynamics remains unchanged except for the smallest droplets, where an increase of Tg and, thus, a slowdown of the structural relaxation is observed even in a fluid matrix.

Density and confinement effects of glass forming m-toluidine in nanoporous Vycor investigated by depolarized dynamic light scattering.

We investigate the reorientational dynamics of supercooled m-toluidine contained in a matrix of nanoporous Vycor with depolarized dynamic light scattering. Under equilibrium conditions a clear sample is obtained and the dynamics of m-toluidine molecules from inside the nanopores can be accessed via light scattering. However, when supercooling the imbibed liquid at conventional cooling rates, strong non-equilibrium effects occur due to the mismatch of expansion coefficients and the sample gets turbid several tens of Kelvin above the bulk glass transition. Only at cooling rates as low as 0.02 K/min this can be avoided and the dynamics of m-toluidine in confinement can be followed even below the bulk glass transition temperature. In confinement a pronounced acceleration of the reorientational dynamics is observed and the characteristic correlation times follow an Arrhenius law close to T(g). However it seems likely that part of the observed differences to bulk behavior is due to density effects, which are reduced but cannot be fully avoided at low cooling rates.

Concentration fluctuations in a binary glass former investigated by x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy.

We investigate structure and dynamics of concentration fluctuations in the binary glass former methyl-tetrahydrofuran and oligomeric methyl metacrylate by photon correlation spectroscopy with partially coherent x-rays from a synchrotron source. Although the system is macroscopically well miscible and optically clear in the full temperature range, calorimetric and dielectric measurements reveal two distinct glass transition temperatures. The relaxation of long range concentration fluctuations turns out to be diffusive and exponential only well above the upper glass transition temperature. As the characteristic time tau(cf) for concentration fluctuations shows a much weaker temperature dependence than the alpha-relaxation both traces finally intersect upon lowering the temperature. Thus, close to T(g), the concentration fluctuations show pronounced features of out-of-equilibrium dynamics such as compressed relaxation functions and a crossover to a ballistic wave vector dependence of tau(cf), like previously observed in various soft matter systems. Moreover, the analysis of time-resolved correlation functions reveals that the relaxation of concentration fluctuations around T(g) involves pronounced dynamic heterogeneities.