Electrical Co-operative Effects in Crystalline Long-Chain Secondary Alcohols

Abstract

IT has been shown¹ that, in polar solids, short-range forces may cause a very high energy difference V between equilibrium positions of the dipoles, and, at temperatures where kT≪V, dielectric absorption of the Debye type may be negligible. Experimental results² show that this theory applies to several crystalline long-chain ketones at room temperature. Although these compounds gave negligible absorption at radio frequencies, high dielectric loss was observed at low frequencies (50–1,000 c./s.), the loss angle increasing, in each case, with decreasing frequency and with decreasing chain-length of the molecules. This absorption was considered to be due to short-range interaction, which causes the dipoles to reverse their direction in groups. Such interaction has been shown theoretically to lead to enhanced polarization³ and absorption, and to shift the absorption peak to lower frequencies⁴.