Debye Type Dielectric Relaxation and the Glass Transition of Alcohols

Abstract

Many hydrogen-bonded liquids, especially glass-forming cases, display a dielectric relaxation behavior that differs qualitatively from that of other simple liquids. The majority of models aimed at explaining this unusual dielectric behavior associate the prominent Debye process with structural relaxation, viscous flow, and the glass transition. We perform dielectric and calorimetric studies of glass-forming mixtures of 2-ethylhexylamine and 2-ethyl-1-hexanol across the entire composition range. The kinetic glass transition temperature derived from the large dielectric Debye peak decreases, whereas that of the much smaller and asymmetrically broadened peak increases upon addition of amine. Only the latter feature coincides with the calorimetric glass transition results, implying that molecular structure and dielectric polarization fluctuate on time scales that can differ by orders of magnitude in many hydrogen-bonding liquids.