IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v410y2001i6825d10.1038_35065704.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Supercooled liquids and the glass transition

Author

Listed:
  • Pablo G. Debenedetti

    (Princeton University)

  • Frank H. Stillinger

    (Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University
    Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies)

Abstract

Glasses are disordered materials that lack the periodicity of crystals but behave mechanically like solids. The most common way of making a glass is by cooling a viscous liquid fast enough to avoid crystallization. Although this route to the vitreous state — supercooling — has been known for millennia, the molecular processes by which liquids acquire amorphous rigidity upon cooling are not fully understood. Here we discuss current theoretical knowledge of the manner in which intermolecular forces give rise to complex behaviour in supercooled liquids and glasses. An intriguing aspect of this behaviour is the apparent connection between dynamics and thermodynamics. The multidimensional potential energy surface as a function of particle coordinates (the energy landscape) offers a convenient viewpoint for the analysis and interpretation of supercooling and glass-formation phenomena. That much of this analysis is at present largely qualitative reflects the fact that precise computations of how viscous liquids sample their landscape have become possible only recently.

Suggested Citation

  • Pablo G. Debenedetti & Frank H. Stillinger, 2001. "Supercooled liquids and the glass transition," Nature, Nature, vol. 410(6825), pages 259-267, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:410:y:2001:i:6825:d:10.1038_35065704
    DOI: 10.1038/35065704
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35065704
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35065704?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sebastian A. Kube & Sungwoo Sohn & Rodrigo Ojeda-Mota & Theo Evers & William Polsky & Naijia Liu & Kevin Ryan & Sean Rinehart & Yong Sun & Jan Schroers, 2022. "Compositional dependence of the fragility in metallic glass forming liquids," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Peng Luo & Yanqin Zhai & Peter Falus & Victoria García Sakai & Monika Hartl & Maiko Kofu & Kenji Nakajima & Antonio Faraone & Y Z, 2022. "Q-dependent collective relaxation dynamics of glass-forming liquid Ca0.4K0.6(NO3)1.4 investigated by wide-angle neutron spin-echo," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Nicole L. Mandel & Soohyun Lee & Kimyung Kim & Keewook Paeng & Laura J. Kaufman, 2022. "Single molecule demonstration of Debye–Stokes–Einstein breakdown in polystyrene near the glass transition temperature," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Jean-Philippe Bouchaud & Roger E. A. Farmer, 2023. "Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, Quasi Nonergodicity, and Wealth Inequality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(4), pages 947-993.
    5. Hengwei Luan & Xin Zhang & Hongyu Ding & Fei Zhang & J. H. Luan & Z. B. Jiao & Yi-Chieh Yang & Hengtong Bu & Ranbin Wang & Jialun Gu & Chunlin Shao & Qing Yu & Yang Shao & Qiaoshi Zeng & Na Chen & C. , 2022. "High-entropy induced a glass-to-glass transition in a metallic glass," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Lars V. Bock & Helmut Grubmüller, 2022. "Effects of cryo-EM cooling on structural ensembles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    7. Roger Farmer & Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, 2020. "Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, Quasi Non-Ergodicity & Wealth Inequality," NBER Working Papers 28261, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Zhen Wei Wu & Yixiao Chen & Wei-Hua Wang & Walter Kob & Limei Xu, 2023. "Topology of vibrational modes predicts plastic events in glasses," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Sheykhali, Somaye & Darooneh, Amir Hossein & Jafari, Gholam Reza, 2020. "Partial balance in social networks with stubborn links," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 548(C).
    10. Simone Ciarella & Dmytro Khomenko & Ludovic Berthier & Felix C. Mocanu & David R. Reichman & Camille Scalliet & Francesco Zamponi, 2023. "Finding defects in glasses through machine learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Lemke, N & de Almeida, R.M.C, 2004. "Diffusion on fractal phase spaces and entropy production," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 340(1), pages 309-315.
    12. Sunny Gupta & Xiaochen Yang & Gerbrand Ceder, 2023. "What dictates soft clay-like lithium superionic conductor formation from rigid salts mixture," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    13. Robert F. Tournier & Michael I. Ojovan, 2022. "Multiple Melting Temperatures in Glass-Forming Melts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    14. Hua Tong & Hajime Tanaka, 2023. "Emerging exotic compositional order on approaching low-temperature equilibrium glasses," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    15. Giuseppe Cassone & Fausto Martelli, 2024. "Electrofreezing of liquid water at ambient conditions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    16. Farías, Constanza & Davis, Sergio, 2021. "Multiple metastable states in an off-lattice Potts model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 581(C).
    17. Leo Zella & Jaeyun Moon & Takeshi Egami, 2024. "Ripples in the bottom of the potential energy landscape of metallic glass," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.
    18. Hideaki Murase & Shunto Arai & Tatsuo Hasegawa & Kazuya Miyagawa & Kazushi Kanoda, 2023. "Spatiotemporal observation of quantum crystallization of electrons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    19. Yu Tong & Lijian Song & Yurong Gao & Longlong Fan & Fucheng Li & Yiming Yang & Guang Mo & Yanhui Liu & Xiaoxue Shui & Yan Zhang & Meng Gao & Juntao Huo & Jichao Qiao & Eloi Pineda & Jun-Qiang Wang, 2023. "Strain-driven Kovacs-like memory effect in glasses," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    20. C.N., Sachin & Joy, Ashwin, 2023. "Configurational entropy of self-propelled glass formers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 626(C).
    21. Toledo-Marín, J. Quetzalcóatl & Castillo, Isaac Pérez & Naumis, Gerardo G., 2016. "Minimal cooling speed for glass transition in a simple solvable energy landscape model," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 451(C), pages 227-236.
    22. Martinez, Luz-Maria & Angell, C.Austen, 2002. "Chemical order lifetimes in liquids, and a second fictive temperature for glassformers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 314(1), pages 548-559.
    23. Birte Riechers & Amlan Das & Eric Dufresne & Peter M. Derlet & Robert Maaß, 2024. "Intermittent cluster dynamics and temporal fractional diffusion in a bulk metallic glass," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:410:y:2001:i:6825:d:10.1038_35065704. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.