Application of an extended Tool–Narayanaswamy–Moynihan model.Part 2. Frequency and cooling rate dependence of glass transition from temperature modulated DSC

In the first part of this paper a Tool–Narayanaswamy–Moynihan-model (TNM) extended by non-Arrhenius temperature dependence of the relaxation time was applied to describe results from temperature modulated DSC (TMDSC). The model is capable to describe the features of the heat capacities measured in TMDSC scan experiments in the glass transition region of polystyrene (PS). In this part the model is applied to bisphenol A-polycarbonate (PC). Both aspects of glass transition, vitrification as well as the dynamic glass transition are again well described by the model. The dynamic glass transition above Tg can be considered as a process in thermodynamic equilibrium. The non-linearity parameter (x) of the TNM model is not needed to describe complex heat capacity as long as the dynamic glass transition is well separated from vitrification. Under such conditions the relation between cooling rate (q0), and the corresponding frequency (ω) can be found from the two independently observed glass transitions. Fictive temperature and the maximum of the imaginary part of complex heat capacity are used for comparison here. The measurement as well as the TNM-model confirm the relation derived from Donthʹs fluctuation approach to glass transition, ω=q0/aδT, where a=5.5±0.1 (confirmed previously experimentally as 6±3) and δT is mean temperature fluctuation of the cooperatively rearranging regions (CRRs).