2 research outputs found
Dipolar and Ionic Relaxations of Polymers Containing Polar Conformationally Versatile Side Chains
This work reports a comparative study of the response of poly(2,3-dimethoxybenzyl
methacrylate), poly(2,5-dimethoxybenzyl methacrylate), and poly(3,4-dimethoxybenzyl methacrylate) to
electrical perturbation fields over wide frequency and temperature windows with the aim of investigating the
influence of the location of the dimethoxy substituents in the phenyl moieties on the relaxation behavior of the
polymers. The dielectric loss isotherms aboveTg exhibit a blurred relaxation resulting from the overlapping of
secondary relaxations with the glass-rubber or R relaxation. At high temperatures and low frequencies, the R
relaxation is hidden by the ionic conductive contribution to the dielectric loss. As usual, the real component of
the complex dielectric permittivity in the frequency domain increases with decreasing frequency until a
plateau is reached corresponding to the glass-rubber (R) relaxation. However, at high temperatures, the real
permittivity starts to increase again with decreasing frequency until a second plateau is reached, a process that
presumably reflects a distributed Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars relaxation or R0 absorption. The R and R0
processes appear respectively as asymmetric and symmetric relaxations in the loss electrical modulus
isotherms in the frequency domain. To facilitate the deconvolution of the overlapping absorptions, the time
retardation spectra of the polymers were computed from the complex dielectric permittivity in the frequency
domain using linear programming regularization parameter techniques. The spectra exhibit three secondary
absorptions named, in increasing order of time γ0, γ, and β followed by the R relaxation. At long times and
well separated from the R absorption the R0 relaxation appears. The replacement of the hydrogen of the
phenyl group in position 2 by the oxymethyl moiety enhances the dielectric activity of the poly-
(dimethoxybenzyl methacrylate)s. The temperature dependence of the relaxation times associated with the
different relaxations is studied, and the molecular origin of the secondary relaxations is qualitatively
discussedThis work was financially supported by
the DGCYT and CAM through Grant MAT2008-06725-C03.
D.R. andL.G. thank Fondecyt,Grants 1080007 and 1080026, for
partial financial helpPeer reviewe