Non-Arrhenius behavior and fragile-to-strong transition of glass-forming liquids

Abstract

Characterization of the non-Arrhenius behavior of glass-forming liquids is a broad avenue for research toward the understanding of the formation mechanisms of noncrystalline materials. In this context, this paper explores the main properties of the viscosity of glass-forming systems, considering super-Arrhenius diffusive processes. We establish the viscous activation energy as a function of the temperature, measure the degree of fragility of the system, and characterize the fragile-to-strong transition through the standard Angell's plot. Our results show that the non-Arrhenius behavior observed in fragile liquids can be understood through the non-Markovian dynamics that characterize the diffusive processes of these systems. Moreover, the fragile-to-strong transition corresponds to a change in the spatiotemporal range of correlations during the glass transition process.