Estimating the glass transition temperature for polymers in 'confined geometries'

Polystyrene has a glass transition temperature of about 100 C — at room temperature it behaves like a solid material. But as its temperature approaches the glass transition temperature, polystyrene’s mechanical properties change drastically. This makes the ability to approximate glass transitions for confined geometries in polymers highly desirable. And now, as researchers report that they’ve developed a simple formula to do just that.

(via WSJ)