Dynamic and Configurational Approach to the Glass Transition by Nanoscale Cooperativity

Here we examine the findings obtained for disaccharide/water mixtures near glass transition that involves cooperative relaxation features on kinetic by viscosity and on thermodynamic behaviour by neutron scattering. Then to address cooperative phenomena that mitigate the Debye-Waller behaviour we invoke Adam-Gibbs’ idea of a cooperative rearranging region. Neutron results suggest that the excess mean square displacement behaves as free volume and is closely connected to an elementary step of the structural relaxation. Then viscosity data evidence a breakdown of the Einstein-Debye relation, decoupling attributed to the intermolecular cooperativity.