Specific and unspecific interactions in polar fluids in view of wideband dielectric far-infrared spectra

Abstract A simple molecular analytical theory of dielectric relaxation in strongly polar fluids is considered in terms of a semi-phenomenological approach. Theoretical spectra e ( ν ), α ( ν ) of complex permittivity and absorption coefficient are fully determined by a form of intermolecular potential well, in which a dipole reorients. In a recent publication by V.I. Gaiduk, O.F. Nielsen, and T.S. Perova [J. Molliq 95 (1002) 1–25] the wideband spectra of liquid H 2 O and D 2 O were described in terms of a composite model comprising the rectangular and the cosine squared potential wells. Much better results are achieved in this work, where the rectangular well is replaced by a well with a rounded bottom termed the hat-curved well. The spectrum of the auto-correlation function (ACF) is calculated for such a potential. The proposed theory of a composite model, comprising hat-curved and parabolic wells, is applied for liquid water. This model is capable for describing the Debye relaxation region, the second relaxation region in the submillimeter wavelength range, and the far infra-red (FIR) e ( ν ), α ( ν ) spectra, where an intense librational band and an additional weak band are placed, respectively, near 700 cm −1 and 200 cm −1 . The latter band reflects the features of so-called specific (viz. directly related to H-bonds) interactions and the former band reflects the features of unspecific interactions. The physical mechanisms connected with these types of interactions are discussed in terms of two relevant types of water structure (types of molecular rotation). The proposed theory is also applied to a non-associated liquid in terms of one hat-curved potential well.