Johari-Goldstein secondary relaxation in methylated alkanes

Abstract

Dielectric relaxation measurements of the methylated alkanes, 3-methylpentane, 3-methylheptane, 4-methylheptane, 2,3-dimethylpentane, and 2,4,6-trimethylheptane by S. Shahriari, A. Mandanici, L-M Wang, and R. Richert [J. Chem. Phys. 121, 8960 (2004)] have found a primary $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ relaxation of these glass-forming liquids and a slow secondary $\ensuremath{\beta}$ relaxation that are in close proximity to each other on the frequency scale. These glass formers have one or more methyl groups individually attached to various carbons on the alkane chain. They cannot contribute to such a slow secondary relaxation. Hence the observed secondary relaxations is not intramolecular in origin and, similar to secondary relaxations found in rigid molecules by Johari and Goldstein, they are potentially important in the consideration of a mechanism for the glass transition. These secondary relaxations in the methylated alkanes are special and belong to the class of Johari-Goldstein in a generalized sense. The coupling model has predicted that its primitive relaxation time should be approximately the same as the relaxation time of the secondary relaxation if the latter is of the Johari-Goldstein kind. This prediction has been shown to hold in many other glass formers. The published data of the methylated alkanes provide an opportunity to test this prediction once more. The results of this work confirm the prediction.