Britannica
Sources used in this answer
What happens to molecular rearrangement below the glass transition temperature?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
amorphous solid
Learn about the chemistry of contact lenses and why it is important to keep them clean.
When the temperature of an amorphous solid falls below the glass transition temperature (), the response time required for molecular rearrangement becomes significantly longer than experimentally accessible time scales.1
As a result, liquidlike mobility disappears, and the atomic configuration becomes effectively "frozen" into a set of fixed positions. While atoms continue to oscillate about these fixed points, the material transitions from an undercooled liquid into a bona fide solid, characterized by properties such as elastic stiffness against shear.1