Russell J. Hemley

We employed high-pressure Brillouin scattering to study the pressure dependencies of acoustic modes of glycerol up to 14 GPa at 300 K. We observed longitudinal acoustic velocities and transverse acoustic velocities for the first time from 5 to 14 GPa. The results allow the determination of a complete set of elastic properties and an accurate determination of the pressure–volume (P–V) equation of state (EOS). EOS parameters, K0 = 14.9 ± 1.8 GPa and K′0 = 5.6 ± 0.5, were determined from fits to the data from ambient pressure to 14 GPa. Direct volume measurements of the P–V EOS are consistent with those determined by Brillouin scattering. A deviation from a Cauchy-like relationship for elastic properties was observed, and the pressure dependencies of the photoelastic constants and relaxation times were documented from 5 to 14 GPa. These results have broad implications for glass-forming liquids, viscoelastic theory, and mode coupling theory.