Dielectric relaxation of rod-like labels in polyisoprene

Abstract

Rod-like molecules with a strong dipole in the long axis were mixed with synthetic polyisoprene (IR305) in low concentrations (0.1–5 wt%) and measured dielectrically in the frequency range 10⁻²–10⁶ Hz and the temperature range −60°–0°C (glass relaxation range). The measurements showed an additional symmetrical relaxation process slower than the glass process by a factor ranging from 10 to 100 times, depending on the length and structure of the label. The label relaxation process was characterized by a narrow distribution of relaxation times and its strong coupling with the segmental motion. For the labels with only a longitudinal dipole moment, no relevant part of the label relaxation was observed in the relaxation frequencies of the glass process; this may be attributed to the parallelism and compactness of the polyisoprene chains. In contrast, the labels with an additional vertical dipole component showed an additional relaxation process superimposed on the glass relaxation with also almost the same distribution of relaxation times. The slow label relaxation could be attributed to a diffusion or rotational diffusion relaxation process through a multistep relaxation mechanism determined by the segmental motion of the matrix.