Structural and Dielectric Relaxations in Vitreous and Liquid State of Monohydroxy Alcohol at High Pressure.

Abstract

2-Ethyl-1-hexanol monoalcohol is a well-known molecular glassformer, which for a long time attracts attention of researchers. As in all other monohydroxy alcohols, its dielectric relaxation reveals two distinct relaxation processes attributed to the structural relaxation and another more intense process, which gives rise to a low-frequency Debye-like relaxation. In this monoalcohol, the frequency separation between these two processes reaches an extremely high value of 3 orders of magnitude, which makes this substance a rather convenient object for studies of mechanisms (supposedly common to all monoalcohols) leading to vitrification of this type of liquids. In this work, we apply two experimental techniques, dielectric spectroscopy and ultrasonic measurements (in both longitudinal and transverse polarizations) at high pressure, to study interference between different relaxation mechanisms occurring in this liquid, which could shed light on both structural and dielectric relaxation processes observed in a supercooled liquid and a glass state. Application of high pressure in this case leads to the simplification of the frequency spectrum of dielectric relaxation, where only one asymmetric feature is observed. Nonetheless, the maximum attenuation of the longitudinal wave in ultrasonic experiments at high pressure is observed at temperatures ≈50 K above the corresponding temperature for the transverse wave. This might indicate different mechanisms of structural relaxation in shear and bulk elasticities in this liquid.