Relationship between macroradical decay kinetics and α-segmental dynamics in glassy amorphous polymers

For a series of five amorphous polymers with a broad range of Tg values the kinetics of macroradical decay was measured by ESR technique and evaluated by the second-order kinetic model. It was found that the temperature Ttr of the transition between two regions of different reactivity in free radical decay reaction agrees quite well with the temperature parameter T0 of the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamman-Hesse (VFTH) equation for α-segmental dynamics. This parameter represents the onset of α-segmental mobility in glassy state below Tg. A nontraditional way of the estimation of T0 values for α-segmental dynamics through study of the macroradical decay in glassy state of amorphous polymers has been suggested.