Molecular motions in molecular glasses as studied by thermally stimulated depolarisation currents (TSDC)

The technique of thermally stimulated depolarisation currents (TSDC) was us ed to study the molecular dynamics in the fragile glass formers salol, glyc erol and maltitol, The glass transition relaxation was carefully studied in these materials using the thermal sampling (TS) procedure. It is suggested that the amplitude of the deviation from the zero entropy prediction is re lated to the fragility of the glass and a definition of fragility based on the TSDC results is proposed. Moreover, a p-relaxation was detected and ful ly characterised in maltitol. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights res erved.