Heat capacity functions of polystyrene in glassy and in liquid amorphous state and glass transition

The heat capacity or the specific heat is for any crystalline, partially amorphous or completely amorphous substance or material a significant thermodynamic property. The glass transition may be regarded as the melting point of amorphous substances and materials, a transition property of an outstanding technical importance. A crucial point is the fact that the presence of a glass transition is an unequivocal proof of an amorphous content of a material. Furthermore, the change of the specific heat at the glass transition temperature enables the quantitative determination of the amorphicity on a relative or absolute level of any substance or material. The absolute determination of the amorphicity affords a calibration with a reference corresponding to the material under investigation. The crystallinity for this reference substance must be known from the preparation and or by any independent analytical method. The literature data for the specific heat and the glass transition of polystyrene were collected and evaluated. Data were found for the specific heat in literature from 10 to 470 K. The data were unified for each of the reported temperature in a mean value and the corresponding standard deviation was determined. An excellent conformity was found in the glassy state of polystyrene with standard deviations lower than 0.7%. The standard deviations above the glass transition were considerably higher.