Glass Transition and Molecular Dynamics in Polystyrene Nanospheres by Fast Scanning Calorimetry

Abstract

We employ fast scanning calorimetry (FSC) to characterize the glass transition of polystyrene (PS) nanospheres. We observe suppression of the glass transition temperature (Tg) in comparison to bulk PS, both in terms of limiting fictive temperature (Tf) and temperature range of vitrification. At the same time, the polymer molecular mobility is found to be independent of the nanospheres diameter and bulk-like. Importantly, apart from the fact that this result has been obtained on the same samples and experiments and at comparable time scales, in all cases, a perturbation of the entropy is induced. Hence, to understand these results, the conceptual difference between vitrification kinetics and molecular mobility is highlighted. The main consequence of the outcome of the present study is that arguments beyond those based on the modification of the molecular mobility must be accounted for to explain Tg suppression in polymer glasses subjected to nanoscale confinement.