Rheological model for the alpha relaxation of glass-forming liquids and its comparison to data for DC704 and DC705

TL;DR

This study presents shear-modulus data for silicone oils DC704 and DC705, fitting them to a phenomenological alpha relaxation model that emphasizes high-frequency decay, and compares the fits to other models, supporting the universality of -relaxation in supercooled liquids.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the alpha part of a squalane-based phenomenological model best fits the shear-modulus data for DC704 and DC705, reinforcing the idea of -relaxation universality.

Findings

The squalane model provides the best fit across all temperatures.

High-frequency decay proportional to  is observed in the data.

The model supports the universality of -relaxation in supercooled liquids.

Abstract

Dynamic shear-modulus data are presented for the two silicone oils DC704 and DC705 for frequencies between 1 mHz and 10 kHz at temperatures covering more than five decades of relaxation-time variation. The data are fitted to the alpha part of a phenomenological model previously shown to describe well the dynamic shear modulus of squalane, which has a large beta process [Hecksher \textit{et al.}, J. Chem. Phys. \textbf{146}, 154504 (2017)]; that model is characterized by additivity of the alpha and beta shear compliance and by a high-frequency decay of the alpha process in proportion to $\omega^{-1/2}$ in which $\omega$ is the angular frequency. The fits of the alpha part of this model to the DC704 and DC705 data are compared to fits by a Havriliak-Negami type model, the Barlow-Erginsav-Lamb model, and a Cole-Davidson type model. At all temperatures the best fit is obtained by the alpha part of the squalane model. This strengthens the conjecture that so-called $\sqrt{t}$-relaxation, leading to high-frequency decays proportional to $\omega^{-1/2}$, is a general characteristic of the alpha relaxation of supercooled liquids [Dyre, Phys. Rev. E {\bf 74}, 021502 (2006); Nielsen \textit{et al.}, J. Chem. Phys. \textbf{130}, 154508 (2009); Pabst \textit{et al.}, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. \textbf{12}, 3685 (2021)].