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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Cooling Rate Dependent Ellipsometry Measurements to Determine the Dynamics of Thin Glassy Films
Published on: January 26, 2016
Molecular mobility and the glass transition in amorphous glucose, maltose, and maltotriose
Sonali Shirke1, Richard D Ludescher
1Department of Food Science, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 65 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520, USA.
Abstract:
We have used measurements of the phosphorescence intensity decay of the triplet probe erythrosin B, dispersed in amorphous glucose, maltose, and maltotriose at probe:sugar mole ratios of approximately 1:10(4), to monitor the molecular mobility of the sugar matrix in the glass and melt around the glass-transition temperature (Tg). Intensity decays were well fit using a stretched-exponential decay model in which the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts lifetime tau and the stretching exponent beta are the physically meaningful parameters. When normalized to the glass-transition temperature, the erythrosin lifetime decreased in the order glucose>maltose>maltotriose. Analysis of the lifetime provided an estimate of the collisional quenching constant for deexcitation of the triplet state (kTS0); kTS0 increased in the order glucose
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