Conformational specific heat of polymers

Abstract

A method to evaluate the conformational specific heat of polymers is proposed. The change in C_v at T_g is identified with the conformational specific heat and calculated from thermodynamic data on 14 polymers. The equation for specific heat of a two‐state model yields the energy difference between the two states, ε, from the experimental data for ΔC_v(T_g). The basic premise of this work is also shown to be derivable from the Gibbs‐DiMarzio theory of glass formation. Derived values of ε are in agreement with results calculated from T_g data and the dependence of T_g upon molecular weight using G‐D theory.