Determination of the glass transition temperature of poly(cyclohexyl acrylate) from oxygen permeability measurements

Abstract The glass transition temperature ( T g ) of poly(cyclohexyl acrylate) (PCA) has been obtained from measurements of the oxygen permeability ( P = 0.60 barrers, T g = 23.5 ± 2.0°C) using a potentiostatic electrochemical sensor, and from the oxygen diffusion coefficient ( D = 0.12 × 10 −8 cm 2 s −1 , T g = 24.0 ± 1.8°C) by the time-lag method. A T g of 25 ± 1°C was found by differential scanning calorimetry and a T g of 25.0 ± 3.5°C was obtained from the specific volume by dilatometry. The fractional free volume ( v f ) at T g is 0.020 ± 0.002, which is slightly below (∼ 20%) most glassy polymers. A linear correlation has been observed between ln D and the reciprocal of v f , which su…