Issue 48, 2023

Highly stable petroleum pitches provide access to the deep glassy state

Abstract

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 °C reductions in the fictive temperature and 0.35–0.87 of θK, 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.

Graphical abstract: Highly stable petroleum pitches provide access to the deep glassy state

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 Sep 2023
Accepted
16 Nov 2023
First published
01 Dec 2023

Soft Matter, 2023,19, 9496-9504

Highly stable petroleum pitches provide access to the deep glassy state

H. Yoon, J. Heinzman, S. E. Smith, M. Gopinadhan, K. V. Edmond, A. C. Clingenpeel and N. J. Alvarez, Soft Matter, 2023, 19, 9496 DOI: 10.1039/D3SM01246H

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements