Characteristic length of dynamic glass transition based on polymer/clay intercalated nanocomposites

The glass transition is an old physical problem. It has been accepted that there is a cooperatively rearranging region related to dynamic heterogeneity when temperature approaches the glass transition. However, there is no consensus with the characteristic length and the size of cooperatively rearranging region. This paper first employs the clay gallery in polymer/clay intercalated nanocomposites as a confined two-dimensional (2D) space to assess the characteristic length of dynamic glass transition. The five kinds of clays with different d-spacings were used to investigate the confinement effect. Theoretical calculation based on Donth's formula suggests that the characteristic lengths of polyol and polyol-based polyurethane are ∼3.20 and ∼1.45 nm, respectively. The experimental results agree with theoretical prediction using Donth's formula. The characteristic length varies with polymer types.