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Highly stable petroleum pitches provide access to the deep glassy state
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Highly stable petroleum pitches provide access to the deep glassy state

Heedong Yoon, James Heinzman, Stuart E. Smith, Manesh Gopinadhan, Kazem V. Edmond, Amy C. Clingenpeel and Nicolas J. Alvarez
Soft matter, v 19(48), pp 9496-9504
13 Dec 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d3sm01246h
PMID: 38037425

Abstract

Chemistry Chemistry, Physical Materials Science Materials Science, Multidisciplinary Physical Sciences Physics Physics, Multidisciplinary Polymer Science Science & Technology Technology
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the fast aging behavior of two petroleum pitch materials despite being only three to five years old. We observe that these highly aromatic pitches with broad distributions of both molecular weight and aromaticity exhibit large enthalpic relaxation endotherms in initial DSC heating scans, and 20-32 degrees C reductions in the fictive temperature and 0.35-0.87 of theta K, which are indicative of aged glasses similar to ultrastable glasses and 20 MA aged amber. Quantifying the degree of thermodynamic stability relative to the Kauzmann temperature vs. the aging time demonstrates that these materials age just as quickly as low fragility metallic glasses. Additionally, we observe that pitches age faster than polymers reported in the literature when compared using down-jump experiments. We hypothesize that the fraction of higher aromaticity of pitch molecules plays a crucial role in faster dynamics. The unique aging behavior and the ability to produce pitches in bulk quantities using pilot-scale equipment, while being possible to tailor their molecular composition, make them a useful material for studying complex aging dynamics in the deep glassy state. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the fast aging behavior of two petroleum pitch materials despite being only three to five years old.

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Web of Science research areas
Chemistry, Physical
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Polymer Science
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