On the correlation between fragility and stretching in glass-forming liquids

Abstract

We study the pressure and temperature dependences of the dielectric relaxation of two molecular glass-forming liquids, dibutyl phthalate and m-toluidine. We focus on two characteristics of the slowing down of relaxation, the fragility associated with the temperature dependence and the stretching characterizing the relaxation function. We combine our data with data from the literature to revisit the proposed correlation between these two quantities. We do this in light of constraints that we suggest to put on the search for empirical correlations among properties of glass-formers. In particular, we argue that a meaningful correlation is to be looked for between stretching and isochoric fragility, as both seem to be constant under isochronic conditions and thereby reflect the intrinsic effect of temperature.