The glass transition of glycerol in the volume-temperature plane

Abstract

We assess the relative importance of spatial congestion and lowered temperature in the slowing dynamics of supercooled glycerol near the glass transition. We independently vary both volume, V, and temperature, T, by applying high pressure and monitor the dynamics by measuring the dielectric susceptibility. Our results demonstrate that both variables are control variables of comparable importance. However, a generalization of the concept of fragility of a glass-former shows that the dynamics are quantitatively more sensitive to fractional changes in V than T. We identify a connection between the fragility and a recently proposed density-temperature scaling which indicates that this conclusion holds for other liquids and polymers.