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Updated: Jul 17, 2025

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Phenol, the simplest aromatic monohydroxy alcohol, displays a faint Debye-like process when mixed with a
Lars Hoffmann1, Joachim Beerwerth1, Kevin Moch1
1Fakultät Physik, Technische Universität Dortmund, 44221 Dortmund, Germany.
Abstract:
Solvated in propylene carbonate, viscous phenol is studied using dielectric spectroscopy and shear rheology. In addition, several oxygen-17 and deuteron nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques are applied to specifically isotope labeled equimolar mixtures. Quantum chemical calculations are used to check the electrical field gradient at phenol's oxygen site. The chosen combination of NMR methods facilitates the selective examination of potentially hydrogen-bond related contributions as well as those dominated by the structural relaxation. Taken together the present results for phenol in equimolar mixtures with the van der Waals liquid propylene carbonate provide evidence for the existence of a very weak Debye-like process that originates from ringlike supramolecular associates.
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