A new interpretation of dielectric data in molecular glass formers

The relaxation behavior of supercooled and glassy imidacloprid

Employing dielectric spectroscopy, oscillatory shear rheology, and calorimetry, the present work explores the molecular dynamics of the widely used insecticide imidacloprid above and below its glass transition temperature. In its supercooled liquid regime, the applied techniques yield good agreement regarding the characteristic structural (alpha) relaxation times of this material. In addition, the generalized Gemant-DiMarzio-Bishop model provides a good conversion between the frequency-dependent dielectric and shear mechanical responses in its viscous state, allowing for an assessment of imidacloprid's molecular hydrodynamic radius. In order to characterize the molecular dynamics in its glassy regime, we employ several approaches. These include the application of frequency-temperature superposition (FTS) to its isostructural dielectric and rheological responses as well as use of dielectric and calorimetric physical aging and the Adam-Gibbs-Vogel model. While the latter approach and dielectric FTS provide relaxation times that are close to each other, the other methods predict notably longer times that are closer to those reflecting a complete recovery of ergodicity. This seemingly conflicting dissimilarity demonstrates that the molecular dynamics of glassy imidacloprid strongly depends on its thermal history, with high relevance for the use of this insecticide as an active ingredient in technological applications.

The effect of nanoclay on the rheology and dynamics of polychlorinated biphenyl

The thermal, rheological, and mechanical and dielectric relaxation properties of exfoliated dispersions of montmorillonite clay in a molecular liquid, polychlorobiphenyl (PCB), were studied. The viscosity enhancement at low concentrations of clay (≤5%) exceeded by a factor of 50 the increase obtainable with conventional fillers. However, the effect of the nanoclay on the local dynamics, including the glass transition temperature, was quite small. All materials herein conformed to density-scaling of the reorientation relaxation time of the PCB for a common value of the scaling exponent. A new relaxation process was observed in the mixtures, associated with PCB molecules in proximity to the clay surface. This process has an anomalously high dielectric strength, suggesting a means to exploit nanoparticles to achieve large electrical energy absorption. This lower frequency dispersion has a weaker dependence on pressure and density, consistent with dynamics constrained by interactions with the particle surface.

Dielectric and mechanical relaxation in isooctylcyanobiphenyl (8*OCB)

The dynamics of isooctylcyanobiphenyl (8*OCB) was characterized using dielectric and mechanical spectroscopies. This isomer of the liquid crystalline octylcyanobiphenyl (8OCB) vitrifies during cooling or on application of pressure, exhibiting the typical features of glass-forming liquids: non-Debye relaxation function, non-Arrhenius temperature dependence of the relaxation times, τ(α), a dynamic crossover at T ∼ 1.6T(g). This crossover is evidenced by changes in the behavior of both the peak shape and the temperature dependence of τ(α). The primary relaxation time at the crossover, 2 ns at ambient pressure, is the smallest value reported to date for any molecular liquid or polymer. Interestingly, at all temperatures below this crossover, τ(α) and the dc conductivity remain coupled (i.e., conform to the Debye-Stokes-Einstein relation). Two secondary relaxations are observed in the glassy state, one of which is identified as the Johari-Goldstein process. Unlike the case for 8OCB, no liquid crystalline phase could be attained for 8*OCB, demonstrating that relatively small differences in chemical structure can effect substantial changes in the intermolecular potential.

Analysis of dielectric and conductive dispersion above Tg in glass-forming molecular liquids

Dynamics of the nonassociated supercooled liquids N-methyl-epsilon-caprolactam (NMEC) and glycerol in the frequency domain are investigated using full complex-nonlinear-least-squares fitting of immittance spectroscopy data for appreciable temperature ranges above the glass transition. Such fitting, not previously used for these materials, helps to identify physical processes responsible for the data and elements of their common behavior. Several different fitting models were applied to find a physically plausible best-fitting one to distinguish quantitatively between the dielectric effects of dipoles and the conductive effects of mobile ions. The utility of many composite fitting models was investigated, and although a pure conductive-system dispersive (CSD) fitting model led to good but physically unrealistic fits of all data sets, the dielectric-system dispersive (DSD) Davidson-Cole model best fitted the alpha-dispersion part of the responses. Nevertheless, the series combination of such a DSD model and a separate CSD model (one not associated with electrode effects) was found to yield much better fitting of the data for both materials. Although the CSD model plays somewhat the role of the conventional parallel DSD Johari-Goldstein beta-response, it is here in series and arises from mobile impurity-ion effects rather than from dipolar ones. Previous analyses of data of the present and other molecular materials have often involved two DSD models in parallel, but fitting with such a composite model led here to less physically plausible parameter values and ones with appreciably more uncertainties. Surprisingly, the series DSD and CSD composite-model fits led to comparable estimated values of the NMEC and glycerol dielectric strength parameters, as well as to the nearly equal small thermal activation energies of these parameters.

Dielectric and conductivity relaxation in mixtures of glycerol with LiCl

We report a thorough dielectric characterization of the alpha relaxation of glass-forming glycerol with varying additions of LiCl. Nine salt concentrations from 0.1 to 20mol% are investigated in a frequency range of 20Hz-3GHz and analyzed in the dielectric loss and modulus representation. Information on the dc conductivity, the dielectric relaxation time (from the loss) and the conductivity relaxation time (from the modulus) is provided. Overall, with increasing ion concentration, a transition from reorientationally to translationally dominated behavior is observed and the translational ion dynamics and the dipolar reorientational dynamics become successively coupled. This gives rise to the prospect that, by adding ions to dipolar glass formers, dielectric spectroscopy may directly couple to the translational degrees of freedom determining the glass transition, even in frequency regimes where usually strong decoupling is observed.

Broadband dielectric spectroscopy on benzophenone: alpha relaxation, beta relaxation, and mode coupling theory

We have performed a detailed dielectric investigation of the relaxational dynamics of glass-forming benzophenone. Our measurements cover a broad frequency range of 0.1 Hz to 120 GHz and temperatures from far below the glass temperature well up into the region of the small-viscosity liquid. With respect to the alpha relaxation this material can be characterized as a typical molecular glass former with rather high fragility. A good agreement of the alpha relaxation behavior with the predictions of the mode coupling theory of the glass transition is stated. In addition, at temperatures below and in the vicinity of T(g) we detect a well-pronounced beta relaxation of Johari-Goldstein type, which with increasing temperature develops into an excess wing. We compare our results to literature data from optical Kerr effect and depolarized light scattering experiments, where an excess-wing-like feature was observed in the 1-100 GHz region. We address the question if the Cole-Cole peak, which was invoked to describe the optical Kerr effect data within the framework of the mode coupling theory, has any relation to the canonical beta relaxation detected by dielectric spectroscopy.