Liquid dynamics in partially crystalline glycerol

We present a dielectric study on the dynamics of supercooled glycerol during crystallization. We explore the transformation into a solid phase in real time by monitoring the temporal evolution of the amplitude of the dielectric signal. Neither the initial nucleation nor the crystal growth influences the liquid dynamics visibly. For one of the samples studied, a tiny fraction of glycerol remained in the disordered state after the end of the transition. We examined the nature of the alpha relaxation in this frustrated crystal and find that it is virtually identical to the bulk dynamics. In addition, we have found no evidence that supercooled glycerol transforms into a peculiar phase in which either a new solid amorphous state or nano-crystals dispersed in a liquid matrix are formed. Published by AIP Publishing.