Investigation of the glass transition on atactic polystyrene by isothermal internal friction measurements

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

This article presents the first results obtained on atactic polystyrene thanks to a new method, allowing isothermal internal friction measurements. The wide range of available frequencies allows us to show that the glass transition in polystyrene corresponds to a single relaxation time process, due for example to a stress induced reorientation of the chain bonds that make up the macromolecules. The temperature dependance of the relaxation strength seems to indicate the presence of a pseudo critical temperature (Tc = 175 K), well below the glass transition temperature, corresponding to a second order thermodynamic transition.