Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Poisson's ratio and the fragility of glass-forming liquids

Nature volume 431, pages 961–963 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

The nature of the transformation by which a supercooled liquid ‘freezes’ to a glass—the glass transition—is a central issue in condensed matter physics1,2,3 but also affects many other fields, including biology4. Substantial progress has been made in understanding this phenomenon over the past two decades, yet many key questions remain. In particular, the factors that control the temperature-dependent relaxation and viscous properties of the liquid phase as the glass transition is approached (that is, whether the glass-forming liquid is ‘fragile’ or ‘strong’5,6,7) remain unclear. Here we show that the fragility of a glass-forming liquid is intimately linked to a very basic property of the corresponding glass phase: the relative strength of shear and bulk moduli, or Poisson's ratio.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: An example of a fragility plot.
Figure 2: Correlation between fragility and the ratio of longitudinal and transversal sound velocities found in the glassy state.
Figure 3: Correlation between fragility and the ratio of the high-temperature activation energy to the glass transition temperature.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Anderson, P. W. Through a glass lightly. Science 267, 1615 (1995)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Angell, C. A. Formation of glasses from liquids and biopolymers. Science 267, 1924–1935 (1995)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Debenedetti, P. G. & Stillinger, F. H. Supercooled liquids and the glass transition. Nature 410, 259–267 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Fox, K. C. Putting proteins under glass. Science 267, 1922–1923 (1995)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Nemilov, S. V. The kinetics of elementary processes in the condensed state. II. Shear relaxation and the equation of state for solids. Zh. Fiz. Khim. 42, 1391–1396 (1968); Russ. J. Phys. Chem. 42, 726–731 (1968)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Nemilov, S. V. Thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of the vitreous state (CRC Press, Boca Raton, 1995)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Angell, C. A. Spectroscopy simulation and scattering, and the medium range order problem in glass. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 73, 1–17 (1985)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Sokolov, A. P., Rössler, E., Kisliuk, A. & Quitmann, D. Dynamics of strong and fragile glassformers: differences and correlation with low-temperature properties. Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 2062–2065 (1993)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Scopigno, T., Ruocco, G., Sette, F. & Monako, G. Is the fragility of a liquid embedded in the properties of its glass? Science 302, 849–852 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Buchenau, U. & Wischnewski, A. Fragility and compressibility at the glass transition. Preprint at http://arXiv.org/cond-mat/0401088(2004).

  11. Bordat, P., Affouard, F., Descamps, M. & Ngai, K. L. Does the interaction potential determine both the fragility of a liquid and the vibrational properties of its glassy state? Preprint at http://arXiv.org/cond-mat/0401117 (2004).

  12. Roland, C. M. & Casalini, R. Temperature dependence of local segmental motion in polystyrene and its variation with molecular weight. J. Chem. Phys. 119, 1838–1842 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Barrer, R. M. The viscosity of pure liquids. I. Non-polymerised fluids. Trans. Faraday Soc. 39, 48–59 (1943)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Stickel, F., Fischer, E. W. & Richert, R. Dynamics of glass-forming liquids. II. Detailed comparison of dielectric relaxation, dc-conductivity, and viscosity data. J. Chem. Phys. 104, 2043–2055 (1996)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Tobolsky, A., Powell, R. E. & Eyring, H. in Frontiers in Chemistry (eds Burk, R. E. & Grummit, O.) Vol. 1, 125 (Interscience, New York, 1943)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Dyre, J. C. & Olsen, N. B. Landscape equivalent of the shoving model. Phys. Rev. E 69, 042501–042504 (2004)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Wang, W. H., Wen, P., Zhao, D. Q., Pan, M. X. & Wang, R. J. Relationship between glass transition temperature and Debye temperature in bulk metallic glasses. J. Mater. Res. 18, 2747–2751 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Sanditov, D. S., Sangadiev, S. Sh. & Kozlov, G. V. On the correlation between elastic modulus of vitreous solids and glass transition temperature of melts. Glass Phys. Chem. 24, 539–547 (1998)

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  19. Fabelinsky, I. L. Molecular Scattering of Light Ch. VII (Plenum, New York, 1968)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  20. Sokolov, A. P. et al. Low-temperature anomalies in strong and fragile glass formers. Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 2405–2408 (1997)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Courtens, E., Foret, M., Hehlen, B. & Vacher, R. The vibrational modes of glasses. Solid State Commun. 117, 187–200 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Grigera, T. S., Martin-Mayor, V., Parisi, G. & Verrocchio, P. Phonon interpretation of the ‘boson peak’ in supercooled liquids. Nature 422, 289–292 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Malinovsky, V. K. & Sokolov, A. P. The nature of boson peak in Raman spectra in glasses. Solid State. Comm. 57, 757–761 (1986)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Duval, E., Boukenter, A. & Achibat, T. Vibrational dynamics and the structure of glasses. J. Phys. Condens. Matt. 2, 10227–10234 (1990)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  25. Soltwisch, M., Quitmann, D. & Ruocco, G. On the connection between low frequency vibrational and relaxational motion in glasses. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 203, 12–18 (1996)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  26. Novikov, V. N. Vibration anharmonicity and fast relaxation in the region of glass transition. Phys. Rev. B 58, 8367–8378 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Martinez, L.-M. & Angell, C. A. A thermodynamic connection to the fragility of glass-forming liquids. Nature 410, 663–667 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Rössler, E., Hess, K.-U. & Novikov, V. N. Universal representation of viscosity in glass forming liquids. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 223, 207–222 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NSF and REFI grants.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Polymer Science, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, 44325-3909, USA

    V. N. Novikov & A. P. Sokolov

  2. IA&E, Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia

    V. N. Novikov

Authors
  1. V. N. Novikov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. P. Sokolov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. P. Sokolov.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

The value of parameters used in the paper in Figures 1–3, Supplementary Figure 1, and respective references. In this table, the transversal and longitudinal sound velocities in glassy state, the high temperature activation energy of shear viscosity, fragility index, the amplitude of the boson peak, and glass transition temperature of some glass formers are shown. (DOC 70 kb)

Supplementary Figure 1

Correlation between the boson peak amplitude normalized to the Debye density of states, Abp, with the ratio of longitudinal and transversal sound velocities found at high frequencies in the glassy state. (DOC 200 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Novikov, V., Sokolov, A. Poisson's ratio and the fragility of glass-forming liquids. Nature 431, 961–963 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02947

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02947

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing