Dielectric secondary relaxation of water in aqueous binary glass-formers

Journal article, 2010

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.