Cooperativity and heterogeneity in plastic crystals studied by nonlinear dielectric spectroscopy

Studies on the nature and pressure evolution of phase transitions in 1-adamantylamine and 1-adamantanol

In this paper, several experimental techniques, i.e., differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared, Raman, and broadband dielectric spectroscopy were applied to study the nature of the phase transitions in 1-adamantylamine (1-NH₂-ADM, C₁₀H₁₇N) and 1-adamantanol (1-OH-ADM, C₁₀H₁₆O). Calorimetric measurements showed one and three endothermic peaks in thermograms for the latter and the former substance, respectively. Indeed, results of spectroscopic investigations indicated that the observed thermal events in 1-NH₂-ADM correspond to transitions between various plastic crystal (PC) phases (I, II, III, IV), while the endothermic process in 1-OH-ADM can be assigned to a phase transition between the PC and the ordinary crystal (OC). Especially interesting were the outcomes of dielectric studies carried out both at ambient and high-pressure conditions, during heating and cooling cycles. They showed: i) noticeable changes in the frequency dependencies of the imaginary (ε^'') and real (ε^') parts of the complex dielectric permittivity that occurred around temperatures of the characteristic endothermic events detected by the calorimetry, and ii) significant fluctuations of ε^'' and ε^' at pressures attributed to the respective phase transitions. Moreover, the pressure coefficients of the phase transition temperatures were estimated to be approximately equal to 0.2 K/MPa for both compounds. In turn, volume variation (ΔV) at the PC (II)-PC (III) and PC (III)-PC (IV) transition temperatures for 1-NH₂-ADM was essentially different than ΔV for the PC-OC transition in 1-OH-ADM.

Nonlinear response theory for Markov processes. IV. The asymmetric double-well potential model revisited

The dielectric response of noninteracting dipoles is discussed in the framework of the classical model of stochastic reorientations in an asymmetric double-well potential (ADWP). In the nonlinear regime, this model exhibits some pecularities in the static response. We find that the saturation behavior of the symmetric double-well potential model does not follow the Langevin function and only in the linear regime are the standard results recovered. If a finite asymmetry is assumed, then the nonlinear susceptibilities are found to change the sign at a number of characteristic temperatures that depend on the magnitude of the asymmetry, as has been observed earlier for the third-order and fifth-order responses. If the kinetics of the barrier crossing in the ADWP model is described as a two-state model, then we can give analytical expressions for the values of the characteristic temperatures. The results for the response obtained from a (numerical) solution of the Fokker-Planck equation for the Brownian motion in a model ADWP behaves very similarly to the two-state model for high barriers. For small barriers no clear-cut timescale separation between the barrier crossing process and the intrawell relaxation exists and the model exhibits a number of timescales. In this case, the frequency-dependent linear susceptibility at low temperatures is dominated by the fast intrawell transitions and at higher temperatures by the barrier crossing kinetics. We find that for nonlinear susceptibilities the latter process appears to be more important and the intrawell transitions play only a role at the lowest temperatures.

Temperature Dependence of Structural Relaxation in Glass-Forming Liquids and Polymers

Understanding the microscopic mechanism of the transition of glass remains one of the most challenging topics in Condensed Matter Physics. What controls the sharp slowing down of molecular motion upon approaching the glass transition temperature T_g, whether there is an underlying thermodynamic transition at some finite temperature below T_g, what the role of cooperativity and heterogeneity are, and many other questions continue to be topics of active discussions. This review focuses on the mechanisms that control the steepness of the temperature dependence of structural relaxation (fragility) in glass-forming liquids. We present a brief overview of the basic theoretical models and their experimental tests, analyzing their predictions for fragility and emphasizing the successes and failures of the models. Special attention is focused on the connection of fast dynamics on picosecond time scales to the behavior of structural relaxation on much longer time scales. A separate section discusses the specific case of polymeric glass-forming liquids, which usually have extremely high fragility. We emphasize the apparent difference between the glass transitions in polymers and small molecules. We also discuss the possible role of quantum effects in the glass transition of light molecules and highlight the recent discovery of the unusually low fragility of water. At the end, we formulate the major challenges and questions remaining in this field.

The effect of polymorphism on the structural, dynamic and dielectric properties of plastic crystal water: A molecular dynamics simulation perspective

We have employed molecular dynamics simulations based on the TIP4P/2005 water model to investigate the local structural, dynamical, and dielectric properties of the two recently reported body-centered-cubic and face-centered-cubic plastic crystal phases of water. Our results reveal significant differences in the local orientational structure and rotational dynamics of water molecules for the two polymorphs. The probability distributions of trigonal and tetrahedral order parameters exhibit a multi-modal structure, implying the existence of significant local orientational heterogeneities, particularly in the face-centered-cubic phase. The calculated hydrogen bond statistics and dynamics provide further indications of the existence of a strongly heterogeneous and rapidly interconverting local orientational structural network in both polymorphs. We have observed a hindered molecular rotation, much more pronounced in the body-centered-cubic phase, which is reflected by the decay of the fourth-order Legendre reorientational correlation functions and angular Van Hove functions. Molecular rotation, however, is additionally hindered in the high-pressure liquid compared to the plastic crystal phase. The results obtained also reveal significant differences in the dielectric properties of the polymorphs due to the different dipolar orientational correlation characterizing each phase.

Polymorphism of 1,3-cyclohexanediols: molecular structure and plastic crystal formation of cyclohexanediol isomers

Different plastic crystal formation abilities of cyclohexanediol isomers interpreted with Hirshfeld surfaces.

Cooperativity in plastic crystals

A statistical mechanical model previously adopted for the analysis of the α-relaxation in structural glass formers is rederived within a general theoretical framework originally developed for systems approaching the ideal glassy state. The interplay between nonexponentiality and cooperativity is reconsidered in the light of energy landscape concepts. The method is used to estimate the cooperativity in orientationally disordered crystals, either from the analysis of literature data on linear dielectric response or from the enthalpy relaxation function obtained by temperature-modulated calorimetry. Knowledge of the specific heat step due to the freezing of the configurational or conformational modes at the glass transition is needed in order to properly account for the extent to which the relaxing system deviates from equilibrium during the rearrangement processes. A number of plastic crystals have been analyzed, and relatively higher cooperativities are found in the presence of hydrogen bonding interaction.

Anhydrosaccharides-A new class of the fragile plastic crystals

In this paper, 1,6-anhydro-β-D-glucopyranose (anhGLU), 1,6-anhydro-β-D-mannopyranose (anhMAN), and 1,6-anhydro-β-D-galactopyranose (anhGAL), three new materials that form the Orientationally Disordered Crystal (ODIC) phase, have been thoroughly investigated using various experimental techniques. All measurements clearly indicated that these compounds possess a series of very interesting physical properties that are considerably different than those reported for ordinary plastic crystals. X-Ray diffraction investigations have revealed enormously long-range static correlations between molecules, reaching even 120 Å. Moreover, dielectric studies showed that besides Freon 113, the investigated anhydrosaccharides are the most fragile systems that form the ODIC phase. Further analysis of Fourier transform infrared spectra indicated that such peculiar behavior of anhydrosaccharides might be closely related to multidirectional H-bonds of various strengths that most likely affect the number of available conformations, density states, and the potential barriers in the energy landscape of these compounds. This is consistent with the results from previous reports [L. C. Pardo, J. Chem. Phys. 124, 124911 (2006) and Th. Bauer et al., J Chem. Phys. 133, 144509 (2010)] showing that the higher fragility of Freon 112 as well as a mixture of 60% succinonitrile and 40% glutaronitrile (60SN-40GN) can be closely related to the enhanced conformational ability and additional disorder introduced by various substituents, which further make energy landscape more complex. Finally, by studying the properties of 2,3,4-tri-O-acetyl-1,6-anhydro-β-D-glucopyranose (ac-anhGLU) it was found that besides the shape of the molecules, H-bonds or generally strong intermolecular interactions are extremely important parameters contributing to the ability to form the plastic phase. This is in line with current observations that in most cases the ODIC phase is created in highly interacting compounds.

Nonlinear dielectric effects in liquids: a guided tour

Dielectric relaxation measurements probe how the polarization of a material responds to the application of an external electric field, providing information on structure and dynamics of the sample. In the limit of small fields and thus linear response, such experiments reveal the properties of the material in the same thermodynamic state it would have in the absence of the external field. At sufficiently high fields, reversible changes in enthalpy and entropy of the system occur even at constant temperature, and these will in turn alter the polarization responses. The resulting nonlinear dielectric effects feature field induced suppressions (saturation) and enhancements (chemical effect) of the amplitudes, as well as time constant shifts towards faster (energy absorption) and slower (entropy reduction) dynamics. This review focuses on the effects of high electric fields that are reversible and observed at constant temperature for single component glass-forming liquids. The experimental challenges involved in nonlinear dielectric experiments, the approaches to separating and identifying the different sources of nonlinear behavior, and the current understanding of how high electric fields affect dielectric materials will be discussed. Covering studies from Debye's initial approach to the present state-of-the-art, it will be emphasized what insight can be gained from the nonlinear responses that are not available from dielectric relaxation results obtained in the linear regime.

Nonlinear response theory for Markov processes. II. Fifth-order response functions

The nonlinear response of stochastic models obeying a master equation is calculated up to fifth order in the external field, thus extending the third-order results obtained earlier [G. Diezemann, Phys. Rev. E 85, 051502 (2012)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.85.051502]. For sinusoidal fields the 5ω component of the susceptibility is computed for the model of dipole reorientations in an asymmetric double well potential and for a trap model with a Gaussian density of states. For most realizations of the models a hump is found in the higher-order susceptibilities. In particular, for the asymmetric double well potential model there are two characteristic temperature regimes showing the occurrence of such a hump as compared to a single characteristic regime in the case of the third-order response. In the case of the trap model the results strongly depend on the variable coupled to the field. As for the third-order response, the low-frequency limit of the susceptibility plays a crucial role with respect to the occurrence of a hump. The findings are discussed in light of recent experimental results obtained for supercooled liquids. The differences found for the third-order and the fifth-order response indicate that nonlinear response functions might serve as a powerful tool to discriminate among the large number of existing models for glassy relaxation.

Interplay between the static ordering and dynamical heterogeneities determining the dynamics of rotation and ordinary liquid phases in 1,6-anhydro-β-D-glucose

In this letter, we reported thorough the structural and molecular dynamics studies on 1,6-anhydro-β-D-glucose, the second compound reported so far that is capable to form rotator and supercooled liquid phases. In contrast to the data presented for ethanol, temperature dependences of structural dynamics in both phases are very comparable. On the other hand, X ray measurements revealed unusually long range ordering/correlations between molecules in the ODIC (d ≈ 95 Å) and supercooled phases (d ≈ 30-40 Å) of this carbohydrate. Our consideration clearly demonstrated that the interplay between length scales of static range ordering and dynamical heterogeneities as well as internal molecular arrangement seem to be the key to understanding the molecular dynamics of different materials characterized by varying degree of disorder in the vicinity of the glass transition temperature.

Revealing the signature of dipolar interactions in dynamic spectra of polydisperse magnetic nanoparticles

We investigate, via a modified mean field approach, the dynamic magnetic response of a polydisperse dipolar suspension to a weak, linearly polarised, AC field. We introduce an additional term into the Fokker-Planck equation, which takes into account dipole-dipole interaction in the form of the first order perturbation, and allows for particle polydispersity. The analytical expressions, obtained for the real and imaginary dynamic susceptibilities, predict three measurable effects: the increase of the real part low-frequency plateaux; the enhanced growth of the imaginary part in the low-frequency range; and the shift of the imaginary part maximum. Our theoretical predictions find an experimental confirmation and explain the changes in the spectrum.