Study of microheterogeneous structure of non-aqueous mixed solvents by non-linear dielectric and viscometric methods

Abstract

The paper presents a comparative analysis of the non-linear dielectric and viscometric studies of the liquid systems: acetone/cyclohexane, acetone/decahydronaphthalene, nitrobenzene/cyclohexane and nitrobenzene/decahydronaphthalene. All these systems reveal precritical-like behaviour (in specific ranges of temperatures and concentrations) manifested by a characteristic maximum on the curve of the concentration dependence of the non-linear dielectric effect parameter (�e /E 2 ). The concentrations corresponding to the maxima of �e /E 2 , x ∼ 0.35 for acetone in cyclohexane, x ∼ 0.55 for acetone in decahydronaphthalene, x ∼ 0.3 for nitrobenzene in cyclohexane and x ∼ 0.42 for nitrobenzene in decahydronaphthalene, which seems to indicate a significant steric effect (not only) of the solvent molecules. For the solutions of nitrobenzene in cyclohexane and in decahydronaphthalene and for acetone in cyclohexane, the curve of the activation energies of viscosity as a function of concentration also reveals maxima close to the concentrations of the maxima of �e /E 2 .