Anomalous absorption and dispersion of sound waves in diethylamine melanin

Abstract

Longitudinal and shear mechanical relaxation data are reported for a hydration of 20% of synthetic diethylamine melanin. The longitudinal attenuations per wavelength αλ at frequencies between 1 and 5 MHz show an enormously large amount of absorption above room temperature. The amount αλ/2π=0.55–0.95 at a temperature of 60 °C in the frequency of 1 MHz has never been found in usual polymeric substances where αλ/2π∼0.1. The longitudinal data are interpreted in terms of a combined relaxation and resonance process. Measurements of the shear impedance in the temperature range from −10 to +60 °C, with frequencies ranging from 5.2 to 362 MHz, indicate a distribution of relaxation times, represented by the Davidson-Cole spectrum. Temperature dependency of limiting shear modulus is found to obey the Hirai-Eyring equation.