The Glass Transition

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XVII

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2. Introduction

   • Ernst-Joachim Donth

   Pages 1-10

3. Description of the Phenomenon

   • Ernst-Joachim Donth

   Pages 11-225

4. Theoretical Framework

   • Ernst-Joachim Donth

   Pages 227-311

5. Slowing Down Mechanisms

   • Ernst-Joachim Donth

   Pages 313-365

6. Epilogue

   • Ernst-Joachim Donth

   Pages 367-376

7. Conclusion

   • Ernst-Joachim Donth

   Pages 377-380

8. Back Matter

   Pages 381-419

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The glass transition is well known to glass makers or from the common ex­ perience of drying a used chewing gum. A liquid melt or a rubber becomes a solid glass when its temperature is lowered or a solvent is extracted without crystallization. There are also dynamic effects. The viscosity of a liquid is small at high temperatures but increases dramatically as cooling proceeds down to the glass temperature T • The increase is continuous and amounts g to about fifteen orders of magnitude! The technical importance of the glass transition cannot be overestimated. A few examples will be presented in the Introduction. Most practical knowledge of the glass transition needed for glass or plastic technologies and applications is now readily available. Where then is the problem? Inthe last few years, glass transition research has enormously intensified. We now have several hundred papers a year in expensive, top scientific journals. In a 1995 Science magazine ranking, the glass transition belongs to the six major physical quests, along with broken charges, physical input for low-dimensional geometry, measurement philoso­ phy in quantum mechanics, coherent X-ray radiation for materials research, and applications of superconductivity. On the other hand, interested people outside the glass transition community have difficulty seeing exactly what the glass transition problems are. Inaddition, even insiders split into groups over which question could be the most important for slow dynamics in cold liquids.

• Disordered materials
• Dynamics of liquids
• Glass state
• Glass transition
• dynamics
• glass
• liquid

From the reviews of the first edition:

"A welcome addition to the literature on a subject that is currently attracting a very heavy research interest… the author means the entire process of viscous slowdown and vitrification... he may well be the best-read author in this field. I found information that was new and interesting to me in nearly every section. There seems to be no element of the subject on which Donth has not read widely and deeply. [His] use of figures, backed up by appropriate text, can be an effective way of conveying a lot of information about (and insight into) the system behavior… This book is an excellent choice of reading material for someone newly entering the field, who wants to be made aware of its elements. It also provides much food for thought for the experts." PHYSICS TODAY (Dec. 2002)

"The glass transition is one of the most challenging tasks waiting for its explanation and understanding. … This excellent book is simply a must not only for scientists working in the glass transition, but also important for material scientists, engineers. Its concept also makes the book to stand as a textbook for advanced or postgraduate students. Extensive referencing, general scope of the book … make the book readable as a bestseller." (Ondrej Gedeon, Ceramics, Vol. 46 (1), 2002)

• Department of Physics, University of Halle, Halle(Saale), Germany

  Ernst-Joachim Donth

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