minimum free‐energy configuration in the supercooled liquid state corresponds to the most probable network configuration. Thus, a relationship between the free energy of the supercooled liquid and the nature of constraints is expected. Establishment of such a relationship will provide a sound thermodynamic foundation of TCT and will provide answers to the important questions as to why good glass‐forming compositions are also low‐temperature eutectics.7 All systems have configurational fluctuations at a finite temperature. The present formulation of TCT applies only to the average network configuration so that the influence of fluctuations is not accounted for. Clearly, extension of TCT to include configurational fluctuations is desirable to model fluctuation‐based properties.
In spite of these limitations, it is important to emphasize that the success of TCT in some systems has been remarkable. But with increasing need to apply TCT to a large variety of systems, it is necessary to develop a theoretically sound basis to resolve these issues.
Acknowledgements
The author is extremely thankful to both reviewers for their thoughtful comments.
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Note
1 Reviewers:P.
