Materials Chemistry Research Dept. BL0111780 Research Paper

Frank H. Stillinger

Enumeration of Isobaric Inherent Structures for the Fragile Glass Former Ortho-Terphenyl

Frank H. Stillinger
Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies Inc.
Murray Hill, NJ 07974
and
Princeton Materials Institute, Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544

January 1998

Abstract:
The widely investigated organic substance ortho-terphenyl (OTP)
displays thermal and kinetic behavior prototypical for ``fragile''
glass formers.

The special relationships between its heat capacity in supercooled-liquid,
amorphous-glass, and crystalline solid states provides simple
access to the enumerating distribution function for its
amorphous inherent structures (potential energy minima) by depth.
The thermodynamic calculations required at 1 atm yield a
broad and somewhat asymmetric distribution.

This distribution implies that supercooling OTP from its
melting point (329.35 K) to its glass transition (240 K)
succeeds only in reducing inherent structure enthalpy by
66 percent of the amount that would be required to attain
the most stable amorphous inherent structure.

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