Enthalpy relaxation of low molecular weight amorphous styrene oligomers measured with an adiabatic calorimeter

Herein, we measured the enthalpy relaxation of three styrene oligomers with different molecular weights (styrene oligomer with M_w?=?4.53?×?10²: PSA-300, styrene oligomer with M_w?=?5.89?×?10²: PSA-500, and styrene oligomer with M_w?=?1.01?×?10³: PSA-1000) near their respective glass transition temperatures (T_g) using an adiabatic calorimeter. We determined the relaxation rates and the amounts of configurational enthalpy released from the temperature dependence of the temperature drift rates around T_g. Based on our experimental findings, we found the amounts of configurational enthalpy release per monomer unit to be 0.8, 3.5, and 1.6 kJ mol^?1 for PSA-300, PSA-500, and PSA-1000, respectively. These values were 3.9–18 times larger than that of glycerol, which is a typical glass-forming liquid.