On the glass transition temperature of TNT

In prior work (N. Shamim, Y. P. Koh, S. L. Simon and G. B. McKenna, "The glass transition of trinitrotoluene (TNT) by Flash DSC," Thermochimica Acta, 620 , 36 - 39 (2015)) results for the glass transition temperature T g of TNT based on measurements using a rapid chip calorimeter were reported. In that work a silver paste was used to contain the liquid TNT on the chip sensor. In the present work we show that there was an interaction between the paste and the TNT that cause the reported T g to be approximately 10 degrees C higher than what we find for the material when placed directly on the chip calorimeter sensor. The reasons for the differences in T g values and similarities in the glassy fragility index m from the different sample preparations are presented and discussed.