Physical Aging Behavior of a Glassy Polyether

Abstract

The present work aims to provide insights on recent findings indicating the presence of multiple equilibration mechanisms in physical aging of glasses. To this aim, we have investigated a glass forming polyether, poly(1-4 cyclohexane di-methanol) (PCDM), by following the evolution of the enthalpic state during physical aging by fast scanning calorimetry (FSC). The main results of our study indicate that physical aging persists at temperatures way below the glass transition temperature and, in a narrow temperature range, is characterized by a two steps evolution of the enthalpic state. Altogether, our results indicate that the simple old-standing view of physical aging as triggered by the α relaxation does not hold true when aging is carried out deep in the glassy state.