Critical Behavior of the Dielectric Modulus in Nitrobenzene-Dodecane Mixture

The dielectric properties of a homogenous critical mixture of nitrobenzene-decane were studied in the range 1 Hz< f1 Mz. The temperature dependences of the “static” dielectric permittivity ε’ (1 MHz) and the electric conductivity σ(1 Hz) exhibit pretransitional anomalies which may be associated with the same critical exponent ø = 1−α ≈ 0.88, where α is the critical exponent of the specific heat. The same data were analyzed using the dielectric modulus representation. They show loss curves for the imaginary part of the modulus M ̋( f ). It was found that the temperature evolutions of the peak frequency τ = 1/2π fp and the peak maximum of M ̋ =M ̋( f_p) also exhibit critical anomalies. Their forms resemble anomalies obtained for the imaginary part of the dielectric permittivity ε̋( f ), carried out for 40 MHz < f <1 GHz, in an ethanol-dodecane critical mixture [S. J. Rzoska, K. Orzechowski, and A. Drozd-Rzoska, Phys. Rev. E 65, 042501 (2002)]. - PACS: 64.70.Ja, 77.20.+y , 64.60.Fr