Improved Approximation of Water Dielectric Permittivity for Calculation of Hamaker Constants

Due to the highly polar nature with a multipeak absorption spectrum of water, the contribution of the relaxation in the microwave and infrared regions to the water dielectric spectrum is significant. The old data obtained by the Cauchy plot analysis of the parameters of the single-relaxation representation of water dielectric spectrum produce the discrepancy in the Hamaker constants computed by the complete continuum theory. New data are obtained by the direct fitting of the single-relaxation model to the complete water dielectric spectrum. The Hamaker constants computed using the improved approximate and the complete spectra for water permittivity are in good agreement. The Hamaker function of quartz-water-quartz and quartz-water-air systems computed using the improved approximation for water and the Cauchy plot approximation for quartz also agrees with that computed using the complete spectrum for both liquid water and crystalline quartz. The new data are to be used, instead of the old Cauchy plot analysis data, in the calculation of the van der Waals interaction across water films based on the available simplified expressions. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.