Probing the subglass relaxation behavior in model heterocyclic polymer networks by dielectric spectroscopy

Dynamics of glass-forming liquids. XII. Dielectric study of primary and secondary relaxations in ethylcyclohexane

The dynamics of ethylcyclohexane are investigated by high resolution dielectric spectroscopy aiming to characterize the relevant relaxational features of this simple system in its fluid, supercooled liquid, and glassy states. The dielectric signature of structural relaxation is a primary loss peak with amplitude Deltaepsilon=0.01, and a secondary loss process is found in the glassy state. This beta relaxation is compared with a "slow" process revealed by ultrasonics and with previously found gamma and chi processes in similar materials containing the cyclohexyl group. The results suggest that this secondary process is an intramolecular mode rather than a Johari-Goldstein process, consistent with its persistence in the liquid state at slow relaxation times which exceed those of the alpha process. The dielectric activity of such a slow process requires that the dipole magnitude changes with the intramolecular transition, whereas a change in dipole direction only would be masked by the faster structural relaxation.

Anomalous Narrowing of the Structural Relaxation Dispersion of Tris(dimethylsiloxy)phenylsilane at Elevated Pressures

Broadband dielectric relaxation measurements of tris(dimethylsiloxy)phenylsilane were made at ambient pressure and at elevated pressures. The data show an anomalous behavior not previously seen in any other glass-formers; namely, the structural alpha-relaxation loss peak narrows with increasing pressure and temperature at constant peak frequency. Interpreted by the coupling model, the effect is due to reduction of intermolecular coupling at elevated pressures. This interpretation has support from the observed decrease of the separation between the alpha-relaxation and the Johari-Goldstein secondary relaxation, as well as the smaller steepness or "fragility" index m of the data obtained at 1.7 GPa than at ambient pressure.

Cooperativity of the beta-relaxations in aromatic polymers

The dielectric loss spectra of a series of copolyesters of poly(ethylene terephthalate) and poly(ethylene isophthalate) have been measured as a function of temperature in a broad frequency range (10(-1)-10(9) Hz). By these measurements, the merging of the two relevant relaxations alpha and beta has been studied. The beta processes exhibit a complex temperature dependence, showing a clear Arrhenius dependence at temperatures well below the glass transition temperature, a transition zone where the characteristic relaxation time of this process nearly does not change with temperature, and an Arrhenius behavior with a higher activation energy for temperatures above the glass transition. The analysis of these results indicates that the beta relaxation in these systems presents typical characteristics of a genuine Johari-Goldstein process. This finding has been interpreted as due to the full monomer extension of the molecular motions involved in the beta relaxation in agreement with recent proposals.

Classification of secondary relaxation in glass-formers based on dynamic properties

Dynamic properties, derived from dielectric relaxation spectra of glass-formers at variable temperature and pressure, are used to characterize and classify any resolved or unresolved secondary relaxation based on their different behaviors. The dynamic properties of the secondary relaxation used include: (1) the pressure and temperature dependences; (2) the separation between its relaxation time taubeta and the primary relaxation time taualpha at any chosen taualpha; (3) whether taubeta is approximately equal to the independent (primitive) relaxation time tau0 of the coupling model; (4) whether both taubeta and tau0 have the same pressure and temperature dependences; (5) whether it is responsible for the "excess wing" of the primary relaxation observed in some glass-formers; (6) how the excess wing changes on aging, blending with another miscible glass-former, or increasing the molecular weight of the glass-former; (7) the change of temperature dependence of its dielectric strength Deltaepsilonbeta and taubeta across the glass transition temperature Tg; (8) the changes of Deltaepsilonbeta and taubeta with aging below Tg; (9) whether it arises in a glass-former composed of totally rigid molecules without any internal degree of freedom; (10) whether only a part of the molecule is involved; and (11) whether it tends to merge with the alpha-relaxation at temperatures above Tg. After the secondary relaxations in many glass-formers have been characterized and classified, we identify the class of secondary relaxations that bears a strong connection or correlation to the primary relaxation in all the dynamic properties. Secondary relaxations found in rigid molecular glass-formers belong to this class. The secondary relaxations in this class play the important role as a precursor or local step of the primary relaxation, and we propose that only they should be called the Johari-Goldstein beta-relaxation.

Relationships between conductivity and local topology in heterocyclic polymer networks

The low frequency complex dielectric relaxation above the glass transition temperature T(g) for a series of well-characterized heterocyclic polymer networks has been analyzed in terms of the electric moduli formalism. It was established that the contribution of ionic conductivity to the electric modulus can be quantitatively separated from the alpha relaxation by using a combination of two Havriliak-Negami (HN) functions. A strong correlation between the mechanisms of both conductivity and segmental mobility was inferred from the similarity of the shape of the HN function for conductivity relaxation to those for the main relaxation. This correlation is further supported by the similarity of the temperature dependencies of the relevant relaxation times corresponding to both processes. The overwhelming contribution of the preexponents D0 in the Arrhenius behavior of the apparent diffusion coefficients can be explained by considering a model implying decreased mean free paths of the diffusing elements and lower activation entropies of diffusion for polymer networks with higher apparent network densities.