Congregation model of glassy transition in supercooled liquids

Abstract On the basis of the analysis of liquid molecules coordinated with their nearest neighbors during cooling, a correspondent congregation model is presented for the vitrification process in supercooled liquid. The potential energy of conformers congregated together is described by Lennard–Jones–Gauss potential. It is shown that there exists universal correlation between fragility and congregation. The results suggest that a liquid is of more fragile property with lower coordination energy. A modified Vogel–Tammann–Fulcher equation is derived from temperature dependent coordination energy, and correlation between fragility and temperature on colloidal system is discussed.