Brownian motion dielectric relaxation

Chapter 8 by W. T. Coffey, Y. P. Kalmykov, and S. V. Titov, entitled Fractional Rotational Diffusion and Anomalous Dielectric Relaxation in Dipole Systems, provides an introduction to the theory of fractional rotational Brownian motion and microscopic models for dielectric relaxation in disordered systems. The authors indicate how anomalous relaxation has its origins in anomalous diffusion and that a physical explanation of anomalous diffusion may be given via the continuous time random walk model. It is demonstrated how this model may be used to justify the fractional diffusion equation. In particular, the Debye theory of dielectric relaxation of an assembly of polar molecules is reformulated using a fractional noninertial Fokker-Planck equation for the purpose of extending that theory to explain anomalous dielectric relaxation. Thus, the authors show how the Debye rotational diffusion model of dielectric relaxation of polar molecules (which may be described in microscopic fashion as the diffusion limit of a discrete time random walk on the surface of the unit sphere) may be extended via the continuous-time random walk to yield the empirical Cole-Cole, Cole-Davidson, and Havriliak-Negami equations of anomalous dielectric relaxation from a microscopic model based on a... 

In the PL of macromolecules, the same or similar relaxation times and forms of bcal micro-Brownian motions occur as in local processes determining dielectric, mechanical and nuclear magnetic relaxation. 

We shall now almost exclusively concentrate on the fractal time random walk excluding inertial effects and the discrete orientation model of dielectric relaxation. We shall demonstrate how in the diffusion limit this walk will yield a fractional generalization of the Debye-Frohlich model. Just as in the conventional Debye relaxation, a fractional generalization of the Debye-Frohlich model may be derived from a number of very different models of the relaxation process (compare the approach of Refs. 22, 23, 28 and 34—36). The advantage of using an approach based on a kinetic equation such as the fractional Fokker-Planck equation (FFPE) however is that such a method may easily be extended to include the effects of the inertia of the dipoles, external potentials, and so on. Moreover, the FFPE (by use of a theorem of operational calculus generalized to fractional exponents and continued fraction methods) clearly indicates how many existing results of the classical theory of the Brownian motion may be extended to include fractional dynamics. 

In the present section, it is demonstrated how the linear response of an assembly of noninteracting polar Brownian particles to a small external field F applied parallel and perpendicular to the bias field Fo may be calculated in the context of the fractional noninertial rotational diffusion in the same manner as normal rotational diffusion [8]. In order to carry out the calculation, it is assumed that the rotational Brownian motion of a particle may be described by a fractional noninertial Fokker-Planck (Smoluchowski) equation, in which the inertial effects are neglected. Both exact and approximate solutions of this equation are presented. We shall demonstrate that the characteristic times of the normal diffusion process, namely, the integral and effective relaxation times obtained in Refs. 8, 65, and 67, allow one to evaluate the dielectric response for anomalous diffusion. Moreover, these characteristic times yield a simple analytical equation for the complex dielectric susceptibility tensor describing the anomalous relaxation of the system. The exact solution of the problem reduces to the solution of the infinite hierarchies of differential-recurrence equations for the corresponding relaxation functions. The longitudinal and transverse components of the susceptibility tensor may be calculated exactly from the Laplace transform of these relaxation functions using linear response theory [72]. 

The behavior of the dielectric spectra for the two-rotational-degree-of-ffeedom (needle) model is similar but not identical to that for fixed-axis rotators (one-rotational-degree-of-fireedom model). Here, the two- and one-rotational-degree-of-freedom models (fractional or normal) can predict dielectric parameters, which may considerably differ from each other. The differences in the results predicted by these two models are summarized in Table I. It is apparent that the model of rotational Brownian motion of a fixed-axis rotator treated in Section IV.B only qualitatively reproduces the principal features (return to optical transparency, etc.) of dielectric relaxation of dipolar molecules in space for example, the dielectric relaxation time obtained in the context of these models differs by a factor 2. 

The appendices contain an account of those parts of the theory of Brownian motion and linear response theory which are essential for the reader in order to achieve an understanding of relaxational phenomena in magnetic domains and in ferrofluid particles. The analogy with dielectric relaxation is emphasized throughout these appendices. Appendix D contains the rigorous derivation of Brown s equation. 

The data cited in Figure 7-10 are for "conventional" (or somewhat syndiotactic) PMMA. In the case of isotactic PMMA, the glass transition temperature is reduced so that the a and P relaxations merge even at low frequencies and the dielectric (i relaxation appears as a shoulder on the much larger a relaxation. It must be assumed in this case that the onset of side-chain ester group rotation corresponds to the onset of main-chain micro-Brownian motion so that the magnitude of the dielectric relaxation is enhanced. 

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