Tg of Semisolid Material by Isothermal Frequency Sweeps in Compression

Introduction

This application note demonstrates the ability of Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) to investigate glass transitions in semisolid viscous materials using a PerkinElmer® DMA 8000. The sample chosen was honey, but the technique is suitable for all materials of this type. Instead of scanning temperature as in a conventional DMA experiment, multiple frequencies were used at three discrete temperatures. A clear relaxation is observed in both the modulus and tan d against frequency plots. This note also demonstrates the use of a little used geometry, compression, to obtain results from the sample.