Relaxation dynamics in tert-butylpyridine/tristyrene mixture investigated by broadband dielectric spectroscopy

We investigated, by means of dielectric spectroscopy, the relaxation dynamics of glass forming binary mixtures composed by the quite rigid polar molecules tert-butylpyridine dissolved in the apolar solvent tristyrene. By changing the relative concentration of the components we observed a transition from a relaxation scenario with a structural process and an excess wing to that with a structural process and a well resolved secondary process. Another relaxation process, slower than the latter, was observed, well below T-g. Our detailed analysis evidenced that the secondary relaxation with shorter relaxation time can be identified as the Johari-Goldstein relaxation for all the mixtures, whereas the new relaxation process was attributed to a different type of motion of tert-butylpyridine needing a larger amount of free volume for the molecular rotation. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.