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Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Cooling Rate Dependent Ellipsometry Measurements to Determine the Dynamics of Thin Glassy Films
Published on: January 26, 2016
Dielectric secondary relaxation of water in aqueous binary glass-formers
Johan Sjöström1, Johan Mattsson, Rikard Bergman
1Department of Applied Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296 Göteborg, Sweden. johan.sjostrom@chalmers.se
Abstract:
Glassy aqueous binary mixtures generally exhibit a water induced dielectric relaxation. The characteristic time-scale of this relaxation follows an Arrhenius temperature dependence with a nearly universal activation energy. We here demonstrate for a series of model aqueous mixtures that the relaxation time also follows a remarkably general exponential dependence on the weight fraction of water. By comparison to literature data we show that this behaviour is shared by a wide range of molecular systems. Neither the detailed nature of the water molecules' glassy environment nor the details of the route of formation of the glassy state has a significant effect on the observed behaviour.
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