Dynamics of asymmetric binary glass formers. I. A dielectric and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

Dielectric spectroscopy as well as (2)H and (31)P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) are applied to probe the component dynamics of the binary glass former tripropyl phosphate (TPP)/polystyrene (PS/PS-d3) in the full concentration (cTPP) range. In addition, depolarized light scattering and differential scanning calorimetry experiments are performed. Two glass transition temperatures are found: Tg 1(cTPP) reflects PS dynamics and shows a monotonic plasticizer effect, while the lower Tg 2(cTPP) exhibits a maximum and is attributed to (faster) TPP dynamics, occurring in a slowly moving or immobilized PS matrix. Dielectric spectroscopy probing solely TPP identifies two different time scales, which are attributed to two sub-ensembles. One of them, again, shows fast TPP dynamics (α2-process), the other (α1-process) displays time constants identical with those of the slow PS matrix. Upon heating the α1-fraction of TPP decreases until above some temperature Tc only a single α2-population exists. Inversely, below Tc a fraction of the TPP molecules is trapped by the PS matrix. At low cTPP the α2-relaxation does not follow frequency-temperature superposition (FTS), instead it is governed by a temperature independent distribution of activation energies leading to correlation times which follow Arrhenius laws, i.e., the α2-relaxation resembles a secondary process. Yet, (31)P NMR demonstrates that it involves isotropic reorientations of TPP molecules within a slowly moving or rigid matrix of PS. At high cTPP the super-Arrhenius temperature dependence of τ2(T), as well as FTS are recovered, known as typical of the glass transition in neat systems.